“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” – Pogo
THE HARD TRUTH IS that many of our challenges are not the result of outside forces but the result of our own choices. We trip over the obstacles we create, then point the finger elsewhere. Private practice optometry is no different.
Corporate optometry has not defeated private practice. The reality is far more sobering: independent optometrists surrendered the fight. The battle wasn’t lost because corporate was stronger, smarter, or better at patient care. It was lost because too many practice owners gave away the very advantages that once set them apart.
Patients make choices based on a few priorities — convenience, price, relationships, and a sense of community. In the first three, corporate shines. But in the other categories, depth of relationships, trust, and connection to the community — private practice has a unique ability to dominate. Independents can match corporate chains in convenience and availability. They can also provide personalized care which corporate optometrists lack the incentives to do. They can build loyalty that lasts for decades, across generations, by being the steady presence families count on year after year. They can be the eye doctor who shows up at the school fundraiser, the church event, or the neighborhood gathering.
Corporate chains cannot replicate that authenticity. And yet, most private practices squander these opportunities. They mimic the corporate model, rushing through exams and delegating too much patient interaction, as if volume alone were the goal. They choose to close on Saturdays, limiting availability. They shy away from confidently presenting unique services, worried about being pushy, while corporate competitors boldly market without hesitation. They fail to invest in training that transforms employees into ambassadors of hospitality.
Worst of all, they rarely create their own story, a story of legacy, of roots in the community, of generations of families cared for. Instead of standing out, they blend in, leaving patients to assume the only difference between them and the corporate chain is price and convenience. Unfortunately, these are the most important attributes people use in choosing where they will purchase eyecare and eyewear.
Advertisement
The irony is painful: private practices are losing not because their strengths have disappeared, but because they refuse to capitalize on them.
This shift is not limited to patients — it is alive within the profession itself. Young ODs look at practice ownership and increasingly walk away. They see owners who don’t act like entrepreneurs but tired employees who also run payroll, negotiate leases, and manage retail staff. These doctors don’t own a business; they own a job. And it is a heavy one.
To a new graduate, the appeal of employment is obvious. A paycheck every two weeks without the headaches of administration. Why take on the risk of ownership when it just looks like stress with extra hours attached? The tragedy is that ownership was never supposed to look like that. Private practice, when led with vision, is not about “owning a job.” It’s about building something enduring: a legacy of patient loyalty, of community connection, and a place that thrives on the strength of authentic relationships.
Corporate optometry didn’t win because it’s unbeatable. It won because private practice surrendered. Owners forfeited their advantages by refusing to slow down, to invest in people, to create and tell their stories, and to embrace their role as leaders instead of employees. They treated ownership as a burden rather than a calling.
Patients still long for trust, for personalized care, for a doctor who knows them beyond their prescription. Communities still respond to businesses that care, show up, and invest locally. The question is not whether private practice can survive; it’s whether optometrists are willing to reclaim the ground they abandoned.
