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NEW YORK—For the third week in a row, optical sales experienced a decline on the national level. This past week’s substantial decreases in optical sales can be attributed to the Labor Day holiday, which was the first day of the most recent week for which metrics were tracked (Sept. 7-Sept. 13). All service/product categories were down by index points in the mid-teens, ranging from minus 14 index points for contact lenses to minus 17 index points for frame units and lens pairs. Overall ECP gross revenues and overall eye exams/refractions declined 16 index points, This follows declines of index points of only the single digits for the past couple of weeks.

Regionally, optical sales in all service/product categories in all four Census regions were down substantially, which could be attributable to the shorter, later Labor Day week this year. Among the regional highlights were the smallest decline of minus 10 index points for contact lenses in the Northeast and the largest declines of minus 18 index points in the Midwest for exams/refractions, frame units and lens pairs.

The Midwest suffering the greatest losses across the board when compared with the other three Census regions corresponds with the fact that it also had the largest number of states (eight) experiencing increasing numbers of cases of COVID-19, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker. All other categories in all other regions were also down in all industry sectors from a range of minus 12 index points to minus 17 index points.

The Jobson COVID-19 Practice Performance Tracker data is compiled by Jobson Research from GPN and ABB Analyze data. Another element of the report illustrates Consumer Sentiments about the COVID-19 response and purchasing intentions, with data supplied by The Vision Council.

Click her to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker.