Sticker shock: Why are glasses so expensive?

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Sticker shock: Why are glasses so expensive?
The following is a script from "Sticker Shock" which originally aired on Oct. 7, 2012, and was rebroadcast on June 15, 2014. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Shachar Bar-On, producer.fake Oakleys
For many of us, summer means a new pair of sunglasses. But bet your eyes popped when you saw the price tag. If you don't go to places like Walmart or Costco, you could easily be spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a pair that cost just $30 15 years ago. Talk about sticker shock!And it's not as though things have changed that much: they're still made of a couple of pieces of plastic or wire, some screws and glass. Why should a pair of glasses cost more than an iPad? Well, as we first reported in October 2012, one answer is because one company controls a big chunk of the business.
Never has there been so much choice: Ray-Bans, Oakleys, glasses for running, and skiing, and even reading. A staggering variety of colors and designers. You'd think the competition would force the prices down.
One reason it hasn't is a little known but very big Italian company called Luxottica. If you own a nice pair of specs or shades, they're probably theirs. Luxottica is the biggest eyewear company on earth. It shuns publicity, but CEO Andrea Guerra invited us in for a look. And it was eye-opening.
Lesley Stahl: Do you have any idea how many people in the world are wearing your glasses right now?Andrea Guerra: At least half a billion are wearing our glasses now.Luxottica started here as a small tool shop in Agordo, a dot of a town in the Italian Alps, when frames were still made of mountain goat horns. This was the factory in 1961. This is what it looks like today.