NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, Jan. 2–8,  when compared with the previous week at a rate of -7 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 6 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 2) when compared with last year (2022), 11 points below the same period in 2021, 7 points below 2020, and 2 points below 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories were down except for one last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of -7 index points for gross revenue, -3 index points for exams/refractions, -17 index points  for frame units, -12 index points for lens pairs and +6 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were up or flat besides one, ranging from the highest increase of 6 index points for gross revenue to the lowest decrease of -2 index points for contact lenses.
 
The other categories increased at rates of 4 index points for frame units and lens pairs, and 0 index points for exams/refractions.
 
With most optical sales categories decreasing last week, the majority of categories did still reach levels at or above an average week in 2019 with the exception of two—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 110 index points for gross revenue to a low of 86 index points for exams/refractions. The other three categories reached 99 index points for frame units, 100 index points for lens pairs, and 106 index points for contact lenses.
 
Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.
 
Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker