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Richard Golden took a look around his D.O.C. stores last year and decided the merchandise was falling short of expectations.
While the stores carry eyewear from brands such as Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Jones New York, President and CEO Golden said there are fewer design differences among namebrand frames than there once were.
"I am finding more and more that the branded products available for D.O.C. stores ... just are not as exciting as they used to be," he said.
That's a problem for D.O.C. Optics Corp., which has positioned itself for years as a leader in eyewear fashion as well as vision correction.
To solve that issue, and to find a way to boost sales in a weak economy, Golden looked to SEE - his own separate chain of eyewear and vision boutiques. SEE, which stands for Selective Eyewear Elements, is a chain of 17 stores in eight states Golden founded in 1998, including stores in Ann Arbor, Rochester Hills and Birmingham.
D.O.C. began adding SEE to its 93 D.O.C. stores last summer and now almost all of them feature a section of frames under the SEE banner.
Golden said the challenge facing many licensed brands is that the goal is to generate the most sales possible by appealing to the largest possible audience. To achieve that goal, it's difficult even for designer brands to...