Tracie Rogalinski, business manager at Eye Deal Vision, knows what it takes for an optical store to appeal to a young crowd. “Kids and teens want to be at the pinnacle of fashion and buy from a place that looks fashionable,” she says. “At their age, the image and style of a store they shop at is important.” Rogalinski speaks from years of experience at the first Eye Deal Vision location in San Antonio, a family oriented optical shop where her husband, Joseph Rogalinski, OD, practices.

“This store does not look like mom and dad’s optometrist,” explains Rogalinski. “Our front displays are glass so people passing by can see inside. The beautiful light drops make it look hip and upscale from the outside, kind of like a martini bar.”

When the time came to open a second store in San Antonio, Rogalinski already had a pretty good idea of how she wanted the layout of the new store to be. The design formula of the first store had been a success and she wanted to stick with what she knew worked, so joining forces with Magic Design’s design director Cy Furman, the two collaborated on giving the new location a trendy, modern look similar to the first one. “Cy applied his professional point-ofview to decide which elements that I liked from the first store could be incorporated into this one,” she says.

Not everything, it turned out, would easily translate from the original layout. With 2,450 square feet to work with and almost half of that dispensary space, the new store was significantly larger than the first one. Filling the space necessitated more materials, which posed a challenge on a limited budget. “We had to be creative on some things, like deciding to opt out on a cabinet we liked in our first store for a much bigger one that could display more frames,” says Rogalinski. “But since we still had our cost estimates from our other office, we were able to project the costs with price inflation and extra space to fill.” Ultimately, the large space served the store well. “In our first office, we have one frame styling desk and one frame dispensing desk. Since the space allows it, we could fit three styling desks and two dispensing desks. Cy doesn’t cram a lot into the design so there is always room for change and adaptation.”


The extra dispensing space also complements one of the key design elements in the store—the frame displays. The frames are set up in a cubby area that occupies much of the dispensary. “The display system is one aspect of our first store we kept,” adds Rogalinski. “It captures people’s eye and allows us to use our point-ofpurchase advertising to let them know what’s in there.”

The extra room in the dispensary gives Eye Deal Vision a chance to expand upon their frame selection. “We carry a lot of Bellagio, Ted Baker and Lulu Guinness in both stores, but now that we have the extra room to display more product we’ve started to try some different frame lines,” says Rogalinski. “We can send them over to our other location if they’re popular.”

Even though the second location just opened in June, the store has already gotten a lot of positive feedback. “The patients that have been to our other store comment on the size of this one and new comers are surprised that there’s such a nice store in this up-and-coming part of San Antonio,” notes Rogalinski. “Everybody that comes to the office is amazed at how wonderful the store looks, our service and selection.”