NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, July 1–7, when compared with the previous week, at a rate of -36 index points due to last week’s July Fourth Independence Day holiday. That places gross revenue at a level -26 index points below where it was at this point in time (Week 27) when compared with last year (2023), -18 points below the same period in 2022, -12 points below 2021, -1 point below 2020 and 17 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories were down last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of -36 index points for gross revenue, -22 index points for exams/refractions, -26 index points for frame units, -25 index points for lens pairs and -23 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all the categories were down, ranging from the largest decrease of -26 index points for both gross revenue and frame units, to the smallest decrease of -19 index points for contact lenses. The other categories changed by -25 index points for exams/refractions and -23 index points for lens pairs.

With all optical sales categories decreasing last week, none of the categories reached a level above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 93 index points for gross revenue to a low of 73 index points for frame units. The other three categories reached 75 index points for exams/refractions, 76 index points for lens pairs and 78 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 Analyze, 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