By Kim Reyes-Palanca @kimpalanca on Instagram Clear as glass. Owndays’s all-in-one pricing system provides fashion and function, plus a fun shopping vibe I never had to wear glasses. Well, until recently. I’ve dreaded the day; the idea of not having near-perfect vision scares me. That, plus the idea of wearing thick specs. However, with what I do, let’s just say, staring at screens poses as an occupational hazard. I don’t have it bad. Not as much as my dad, at least. In our family, I grew up witnessing how he shopped for spectacles: We go to the mall, he gets his eyes checked, tries on a few frames, chats with the people behind the glass counters, gets my mom’s opinion, and then eventually ends up with the latest in rimless and lightweight “space” frames. He would pay good money for a pair because he wanted to look young, and still be comfortable. Those didn’t come cheap then and so, taking the time to choose and coming to the store with a decent budget in mind were expected. Back then, customizing meant additional charges on top of the price of the frame. How it’s made. The Spectacle Assembling Room offers a live demo of lens-making He usually goes to only two stores as far as I remember, and to places where he already knows the staff. And although they’ve been friendly, the process alone, especially for me as a kid then, was not necessarily pleasant. My siblings and I had to watch and sit it out (our treat later that day depended on good behavior, of course!). “People are easily led to buy lenses they really don’t need or to be sold add-ons that are already supposed to be included. There’s an information imbalance. When buying glasses, you as a consumer are not knowledgeable. But retailers are able to take advantage of that information asymmetry, so to speak, to charge you more. With us, we are transparent,” says Vohne Yao, Sungears Sales managing director. The flagship store at Mega Fashion Hall is the country’s largest optical store, and largest Owndays in the world Yao is talking about Japanese eyewear brand Owndays, their company’s latest discovery and business venture. Just two years after opening the first local outlet in Estancia Mall, they recently opened the biggest optical store in the country, which also happens to be the biggest Owndays in the world! The flagship store in Mega Fashion Hall makes shopping for lenses a painless procedure. In fact, you will probably leave and grab a pair with you, whether for function or fashion—or both! The new store boasts 280 square meters of open retail space for stylish frames. The store also aims to raise awareness for children’s eye care through a dedicated kids section. In the middle of it all sits the Spectacle Assembling Room, which offers a 360-degree view. If you like learning how things are made, here, like an open kitchen or a factory assembly line, you get a live demo of how your eyeglasses are made—from the time they get your lensometer particulars from the customer card, to lens marking, cutting, and mounting. At the store, you pick a frame, get your eyes checked, pick the correct lenses, pay, and then leave with a pair, in as fast as 20 minutes. “People don’t know how to pick frames. The whole process is what makes different. We recommend frames for your face shape, and we have over 1,500 designs to choose from,” shares Yao. Aside from having doctors in the store, Owndays has trained sales staff with the technical know-how when it comes to choosing the right lenses. And you do this in a relaxed environment. “You can touch and hold the frames. They’re not inside a glass case,” he adds. Best of all, there’s no “bill shock”—no hidden or additional charges (anything that might remind you of your phone bill). Yao says, “The price is not intimidating. When we started, nobody was doing this—built-in price for frame and lens together. Our lenses start at P1,990 and that’s ultra-thin already.” Aside from free eye check-ups at the store, customers also get a one-year warranty on lens upgrades, and 50% off on frame replacement, should your glasses get damaged.   Owndays flagship store is located at 3/f Mega Fashion Hall. For more info, go to owndays.com/ph, like owndays.ph on Facebook, follow @owndaysph on Instagram