"Glasses in about an hour" has been highly advertised by some chain store opticals in recent years.  The fact is that many privately owned opticals and doctors offices have in house labs that can make glasses in an hour.  Kirkland Vision Center has an in-house lab that can fabricate some prescriptions in less than 30 minutes.  But it is difficult to advertise such a service in an ethical way.  Certain simple single vision prescriptions can indeed be fabricated quickly, but it is ill advised to have glasses done in an hour if the power of the lens exceeds three or four diopters, or if the prescription includes a second lens power for reading.  There are several reasons for this.  First, as the compexity of the prescription increases, the likelyhood of error increases dramatically.  If an error is made on glasses promised in an hour, it is more likely to be overlooked or "let through''.  Second, the equipment used at a chain store is far less sophisticated than the multimillion dollar machinery found in todays modern full service regional laboratory.  Third, the range of product made available to the privately owned optical through the regional lab far exceeds what is available at the chain store.  At Kirkland Vision Center, for example, we offer more than five choices of high index materials and virtually every progressive addition lens on the market.  But the high index lens the customer is likely to get from the chain store is polycarbonate.  This material is marketed by one chain store as the "featherweight lens".  Their advertising goes on to suggest that this product is only available through their stores.  Polycarbonate has actually been around for more than a quarter century and is available everywhere.  Although it is thin and relatively inexpensive,  it also has the highest level of aberation and optical distortion of any high index material and it scratches easily.  It is, however,  virtually shatterproof which makes it an excellent industrial safety lens.  The range of progressive addition lenses at the chain store will likely be very limited as well.  Another important distinction should be pointed out between the privately owned optical and the chain store.  A well managed private office checks all work received  from a regional laboratory for accuracy.  If inacuracies are found the job is sent back to the lab for re-do. It costs the private practicioner nothing to insist upon quality work.  The corporate sector works a little differently.  Here the optical store and the laboratory are owned by the same entity.  In this scenario, costly mistakes are more likely to be overlooked.  Of course, the quality of service and product is going to vary from one privately owned office to another.  Nevertheless, vision care tends to be of a higher quality at the privately owned office.