This blog post review was written in exchange for a gifted optical service by Truesmiths Eyecare. While neither party were paid in this exchange and this is an affiliated ad post, all views expressed here are my own.

I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 6 years old. Most days I couldn’t even remember to wear my glasses to school, but I knew exactly where I left them whenever my friend (who had already been wearing glasses for 2 years) asked me where my glasses were that day (usually on my bedside table). I have astigmatism (basically, it’s a rugby ball-shaped eyeball) and I also have a lazy eye (my left eye tends to let my right eye do most of the heavy lifting. It took ten years for my eyesight to deteriorate to the -4.75 to -5 region, and it was not stabilising for long enough for me to be considered for the pioneering corrective laser eye surgery. It was when I was 22 years old, with a -5.25 and -5.75 prescription, with only 18 months of stability that I was cleared to take the plunge and have LASIK. It was an incredibly traumatic 17 minutes (which was precluded with the most frightening risks/consent document I have ever read) that resulted in immediately perfect vision post-op. After the recovery period, I experienced a new sense of freedom in life – seeing my alarm clock in the morning, seeing where I was walking when I got up in the middle of the night, seeing where my eyeliner was going. Oh and spontaneous sleepovers. You know, important things. Eventually, I settled down, started a family and smartphones took over the world. Increased screentime and age lead to my eyesight deteriorating again aged 32 and I’ve been back to wearing glasses ever since. But unlike my childhood years, I embraced the opportunity to make a style statement by collecting a multitude of new frames each time my prescription was updated. I would decline the glasses offered by the high street opticians, which I felt were generic, and boring. Instead, I would opt for online suppliers for the vastly lower prices, and much more colourful variety.

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We are a glasses-dominated family. We visit the opticians as regularly as the dentist in fact, more so through the pandemic. We’ve been to enough franchise opticians now that I even have an embargo on one particular brand following a nonsensical customer service experience. I had my fair share of blame in the incident but it was nothing that a little touch of humanity might have resolved, but I digress. I switched to another high street optician and I also started searching for independent opticians. I wanted to find a family optician service that would remind me of the experiences I used to have at my annual eye test with the now-defunct Dollond & Aitchison. And I wanted to turn away from the national franchises in order to support hard-working independent businesses instead.

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It’s not easy to find independent service providers nowadays. Capitalism has really made big business for big businesses being able to take advantage of economies of scale and use a centralised manufacturing centre for cost effectiveness. I’ll admit I didn’t search very hard. So when I received a direct message on my Instagram from someone named Laura , complimenting my choice of glasses and inviting me to an opportunity for a gifted eyecare service in return for promoting their glasses and service through a review and social media content, it felt like for once the creepy, stalky social media algorithms had finally connected me to something I genuinely needed.

So I’ve been wearing glasses again for the last 10 years. I have had countless frames of varying colours and styles. And after 10 years I now specifically seek out metal cat-eye frames, with nose pads that will sit and stay in place on my Asian bridge without slowly sliding down my nose. There’s nothing more annoying than going about your merry day, maybe catching up with friends, taking a selfie and then realising that your glasses have actually dropped right down and the frame is basically covering your eye line. Ugh. I explained this to Laura in our DM exchange (and once again for good measure when we met in person).

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After discussing available and convenient times Laura booked me in for my appointment through our message exchanges. I could have booked online via their website. Or phoned in (*shudder*). Or Whatsapped or I could have literally just walked up to the shop on the day for an eye test. This makes for a very accessible service (from which I need to learn for my henna appointments to be honest). I haven’t used any of these other booking methods though, and Truesmiths are really very new – lilke opened in March 2021 *new* – so I would be braced to come up against any teething problem style technical glitches. If in doubt, phone up during opening times to check availability, if talking on the phone doesn’t faze you at all. But if it does, just whatsapp them.

One thing I hadn’t fully disclosed to Laura about our arrangement was that this was my first ad/gifted promotion. And I was very excited. I poked around the Truesmith corporate instagram account and found it generic and a little sparse (though there will be a new member on the team soon who comes from a marketing and media background who can jhusjh it up – *fingers crossed*). From there I got the address for my satnav: Morrisons, 265 Bradford Road, BD10 8EG. I wondered what sort of setup it would be. I envisioned the opticians to be occupying a unit space much like the dry cleaners/locksmith/pharmacy services.

Like the dilgent and keen bod that I am, I arrived 15 minutes early. I switched my engine off and noted that parking and accessibility obviously isn’t an issue at all thanks to the benefit of the existing Morrisons infrastructure: Masses of dedicated car parking space, disabled parking bays, parent and child parking, flat level pavements and entry ways, and all the sanitising stations we have all come to expect. I had parked behind a departing police car, loaded with officers who had just bought some lunch from the deli counter. I put on my face cover and wandered into the building.

For the next 5 minutes I wandered up and down by the rows of checkouts, looking for Truesmiths. I saw the dry cleaners, the pharmacy, the customer toilets, the food bank collection point. Then I turned and walked in the opposite direction and passed the cafe and photo shop. Then I wondered if I had been short-sighted (pun intended) and checked the other side again, including the kiosk area. Ok, so wait Connie. It is definitely in here because it’s online and Laura confirmed the address. I have seen at least 3 A-boards for Truesmiths. So it was definitely in here somewhere. I looked up at the aisle numbers in the supermarket and then I spotted the big Truesmiths Eyecare sign (It’s floating above the opticians in the photo below, perpendicular to the aisle signs – but I only got the back of it, sorry).

Ohhhhhh…. so it’s actually in Morrisons. Like: In, in. My anxiety calmed, I slowed to a regular walking pace again and then I realised I was cold. Jeez. The air conditioning is seriously working hard in here. I should probably not have worn an open back blouse.

After passing through market street and down the middle of the store, Truesmiths was signposted by another A-board and located prominently in the personal care section. We awkwardly but warmly greeted each other – since we’d met online, survived a pandemic, and weathered several lockdowns, I realised that there is no social interaction template that seems “natural” anymore. I explained the struggle I’d had finding the shop. Laura was super understanding, explaining that they were trying more signage but were open to any suggestions that may come to mind. I asked for a “located in Morrison’s personal care section” giant update sticker to all of the A-boards. Maybe even a floor decal at the motion sensor gate entry point.

Truesmiths Eyecare is mostly open plan, with 3 (maybe 4?) closed consultation rooms, and a partitioned pre-assessment area with a really cool roller-retractable screen – this is the area you go to sit and look at that distantly colourful hot air balloon in a field, that blurs and comes into clear view. If you’re of a particular age, this is also where you have that awful “short puff of air” glaucoma test, the one that makes you jump out of your chair. I also had the backs of my eyes photographed by that other machine with the extremely bright light – which always makes my eyes water. Laura took my glasses to check the prescription I was currently wearing and compared it to the last prescription that I managed to find on file amongst my emails somewhere. She was able to tell me if the online, overseas supplier had got the prescription right – this is of course the main, serious downfall of online overseas eyewear suppliers. It turns out that my lenses were only a tiny bit “off”. They weren’t 100% spot-on, but they were definitely not the worst online bought lenses she had ever checked. I was relieved to hear this and ashamed that I, a person who has had so many optician’s appointments in my life and knows exactly how important good eyecare and accurate eyewear is for eye health, could have the audacity to even wear the online-bought-glasses to my in-person appointment. But they’re pretty!! That’s why I buy online! The styles are so much nicer and funkier! I’ve even kept the online frames and paid [a lot] to have them reglazed (that is, I paid a high street optician to replace the lenses with my new prescription for me). I get a lot of compliments on the online frames. They’re always oversized cat-eye style – and that’s just not very easy to find in stores. But I will admit that I do hack the frames and modify them with silicone arm covers, and new nose pads to improve the comfort of wearing them since they are typically heavy frames:

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Very shortly I was introduced to Hafsa my optometrist for the eye test. Hafsa asked me the expected series of questions, how long I’ve worn glasses, previous eye health (e.g. my LASIK surgery) current health, and all that jazz. She momentarily invited me to take a seat at a big machine on the other side of the room to try out – a fancy new sight assessment machine-thingamijig. I’m going to show my age now, as I remember back in the day when the board on the opposing wall was actually a board with letters or even a flipchart style board. I remember the examination rooms that needed to be loooooong for your eye test. I even remember the first time I walked in for an eye test and noticed the room was significantly smaller because mirrors were introduced, which meant you only needed a room half the size for the same eye test. And now, Hafsa was introducing me to a machine that I could just sit at, that could be used to carry out all those same distance tests, and allow her, the optometrist, to do all those tweaks, and lens swap/twists/turns from a computer in the same room. OMG. I still remember wearing heavy half-frames with tons of little monocle style lenses inserted, perched precariously on my tiny bridge, threatening to fall off my face every 10 seconds. Technology is COOL. Though there are limitations. Case in point – LASIK surgery has permanently altered the structure of my cornea, which the machine picked up almost immediately so we couldn’t use the exciting tech gadgetry. Not a problem at all for Hafsa, and not a problem for me – as far as I am concerned, the existing machinery is still Star Trek level advanced.

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If you’ve had eye tests before, then you know the drill: Sit in a chair, look at a mirror on the opposing wall, read out [i.e. guess] the increasingly small alphabet letters, check the circles on red/green backgrounds, and decide whether the cluster of dots are better or worse with option 1 or 2, or “about the same”. She also checked my reading vision – because I’m 42 years old now, which means the dreaded long-sightedness is creeping in. My previous opticians had said that it wasn’t imperative to have a prescription set of reading glasses, though it may make up-close detailed work more comfortable, they suggested I try a cheap pair of reading glasses instead – which was a fair and economical suggestion that I appreciated, yet never followed through with. At Truesmiths, Hafsa and Laura chatted with me about having two pairs of glasses, versus having “booster” lenses. Let’s be honest here, we all know those booster lenses are probably bifocals/varifocals, and I’ll be very very honest: I am not ready for bifocals. Laura then assured me that actually, since booster lenses can’t be made on-site/in 30 minutes as they need to be tailored to each person’s sight, single vision glasses would be better for today’s experience. Thanks, Laura, for not telling me to get bifocals. I truly appreciate that!

Then came the part that I used to hate: Choosing a set of frames.

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I grew up wearing mostly oversized glasses, with a large lenses that would have a long drop so the glasses sort of sat on my cheeks, while the top of the frames would inevitably cover my eyes having slipped down my nose. All I ever wanted for the entirety of my teens was a pair of black metal frames that fit properly – oval, ideally. The choices I was offered year after year were gold, silver, or pink acetate. Always full-frame, always the classic shape. Some years I would be able to get new frames during a family trip to Hong Kong where the frames would be better suited to my bone structure. But back here at home, nothing ever inspired me. I would end up settling for whatever was the best of the very poor options, and then they would tell me that with my [previously] very severe prescription, the thinnest lenses would still be too thick for the frames I had settled on. So then, I would need to go with my 2nd choice of the very poor options, sometimes even worse. So I hated it. I really hated choosing frames. This memory is what fuelled the collection of multiple frames when I came to need glasses again aged 32, with a much weaker prescription. I didn’t need to worry about thick lenses anymore so the options increased exponentially so I bought all of the colours!

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The selection of frames that Laura has stocked at Truesmiths is deceptive. At a glance you might think it’s just like any other opticians’ selection – maybe even a bit smaller than I remember seeing at my last high street opticians appointment 6 months ago. At least that was my first impression. But in the end, I picked out 11 metal frames to try on. Two of these were purple (proper purple, not dark purple/black), turquoise was in there and tortoiseshell too for good measure. Several were my preferred cat-eye style, but we had wildcard options thrown in too, including a rounded square gold frame. Why not, after all, trying on frames is free!

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We took my tray of sample frames back to our table where I sat trying on each frame, progressively eliminating frames before finally settling on a black cat-eye frame with gold accents, and an antique metallic gold rounded square frame – yes, the wildcard option that we threw in. Then I had to decide which frames would be my distance glasses and which would be my reading glasses. I had reached decision fatigue, so I asked Laura for her opinion and went with her judgment. The cat-eye would be my work/reading glasses. And the gold would be my general wear glasses – lighter.

Then the next thing that happened was something entirely new to my combined 25 years of wearing glasses.

Laura checked for lenses and returned with 2 pairs of ready-made lenses in my prescription. She explained that my prescription was in stock so they would be able to put the lenses into the brand new sets of the frames I had just selected. It would be done in-store – yes, that’s on-site, right there in the shop – and would be ready in 30 minutes. She opened the lenses to show me. I was fascinated. I took pictures and my brain very slowly processed the information she had just told me. It sank in and suddenly I stopped, looking at Laura and proclaimed: “This Is So Cool. I am geeking out!”

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I think it’s just seeing the lenses in this form, circular, and then seeing my selected frames, and then realising that someone would be taking those circular lenses, and grading them down to fit into my new frames in the next 30 minutes… My mind was a little bit blown. It seemed like such a straightforward and simple task when presented by the Truesmith team. But it’s just not something I’ve been offered by other opticians before. (I remember when VisionExpress used to exist, promising glasses that would be ready in one hour – where are they now?)

Laura sent me away to wander the store or visit the cafe while they made my new glasses. It occurs to me now that I could have stayed and stared at the team working on my new frames, intimidatingly scrutinising the process. But I didn’t. I opted to grab a hot chocolate (Morrison’s is seriously cold) and a blueberry muffin from the self service cafe, choose a seat, then sit down to WhatsApp my immediate family and friends that I was in shock and geeking out because my glasses were being made right that second and would be ready in 30 minutes. I nibbled on the muffin and gulped down my very-quickly-cooling hot chocolate for some much-needed body heat. Halfway through my muffin I was interrupted by an SMS update to let me know that my glasses were now ready for collection.

What.

I checked the time stamp on the photo I had taken when I left the opticians: 13:32

I checked the time stamp on the SMS notification: 13:52

What?!!

I rose slowly from my seat, simultaneously typing the news to my friends. Almost immediately they asked ‘where exactly is this optician?’ I wandered back to Truesmiths with my head hunched over my phone, pinging details to my friends. Laura welcomed me back, brought out my glasses in their cases from the drawer where I presume she had just put them away only moments before. We sat down and started to fit the new frames for my comfort. It was so easy. I don’t know if it was the style of the frame I chose, or if it was the universe aligning. Or maybe it’s Laura being an expert and making it look dead easy, but the first set of glasses fit perfectly with zero adjustments required. Absolutely nothing. The second set, the cat-eye, needed the nose pads adjusting and the arms curving more to go around my ears. She took them momentarily to adjust and returned for me to find that once again, they fit perfectly. We checked that my mascara wasn’t rubbing the lenses. I scrunched my nose to check for sliding (which tbh doesn’t happen until my face has fully greased up the silicone nose pads which takes roughly 10 days). Everything was perfect and that was it. All done.

I think something inside me was unnerved by the unprecedented speed of service because this was the moment I decided to quiz Laura on all sorts of random things that came to mind. I suddenly had all the questions as if I was trying to stay longer to match the template from all the experiences I’ve had with other opticians…

Do you recycle old frames? Yes, using the VisionAid service. Also all the glasses cases are made from recycled sea plastic. Side note: I love the glasses cases. They open up completely flat, but fold up and close up into a lovely stackable oblong box – much easier to store if you happen to collect frames like I do, and like to change up your style.

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How do you make your service more accessible for diversity and inclusion? At least half the members of staff are bilingual and representative of the South East Asian communities in Bradford. Approved translation services over the phone are also used where English is not a fluent language. Also, in addition to being able to have walk-in eye tests while you’re in-store picking up your weekly groceries, you can book your eye test through a variety of methods (phone call, WhatsApp, online via the website) which covers most of the preferred communication styles across different demographics. I don’t recall seeing a hearing aid induction loop, so I can’t confirm that detail. However, the protective clear screens in-store are practical and effective, so there is the opportunity for removing face coverings for lip reading, though you will need to let the team know. The entire shop is level access – with standard doorways.

Can you do anything about the cold inside Morrisons – like have some heaters under the service tables? Appreciate that – good idea, heaters under the tables could work! I myself would suggest bringing extra layers for warmth if you are a person who tends to run a little cold.

Will you have more stylish frames coming in? Watch this space. Laura has been invited to design her own range of frames which will be completed and available in-store next year. In previous positions she has provided handpainted frames – I didn’t even know this was a thing that could be done – and she has a lot of insight into what makes frames both stylish and functional. I can see her creativity peeking out in her personal expression and it gives me hope that I will one day have a very awesome set of colourful frames without compromising on frame weight and buying from overseas online providers.

Will you be opening more branches? Hopefully in more Morrisons stores. Truesmiths is not contracted by Morrisons and is a true independent service that has opted and been accepted by Morrisons to operate within the supermarket, taking advantage of its well-established premises and presence. This means you get the personal customer attention you’d expect from a small independently-owned local business, that is not beholden to Morrison’s handbook and mass-produced protocols. Having worked in a supermarket myself, and a supermarket pharmacy, I have seen firsthand how the goals of a national chain superstore can be severely counter-productive to providing a community health service.

So how can people book an eye test with you? Can they just turn up and walk in for an eye test while they’re in Morrison’s? Yes. That is a service that is available. Or you can book online via the Truesmiths Eyecare website. You can call the store during opening times (01274 621992, 9AM – 6PM Monday Saturday, 10AM – 4PM Sunday). And you can also book in via WhatsApp (07865 531114). This just about covers all styles of communication for the typical customer in 2021 – except maybe email, which is available if you wanted to try (info@truesmithseyecare.co.uk).

Bottom line: What was the cost??

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The total value of the two pairs of glasses I took home would have cost me £130. The gold rounded-square frames were £110 including thinner/lighter lenses for an additional £20. The black cat-eye frames were £85, but Truesmiths operate a 2 for 1 policy so I would only need to pay for the higher-priced pair. Anti-glare finished lenses come as standard and the eye test is free when you buy glasses in-store. If that amount still sounds like a lot (which it is as a standalone number, to be fair) I have just checked my bank statements to find I paid £220 to the previous national opticians simply to replace the lenses in my existing frames with my new prescription and it took 3 weeks for me to get the glasses back (a standard 2-week wait, plus another week delay due to lack of communications from them). If I had selected from their frames in-store at the high street opticians it would have come to approximately £130-180 (one pair of single vision glasses, plus thinner lens, anti-reflection, anti-scratch options etc), and the obligatory 2 weeks wait. So 20 minutes for two pairs of glasses for £130… If I am completely frank with you, I am still sitting here in shock as I type this review hours after the fact because it’s just a bit cool innit.

When it comes to buying glasses and accessing optical services it will of course boil down to personal preferences, accessibility, location, choice of frames, budget and more… but for me, I think it makes a lot of sense to finally leave national optician services for good and to bring my family (remembering to bring a cardigan for warmth) to Truesmiths Eyecare for our future eye tests from now on.