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.”
August 2007
Retail Strategies