Table 6.

Professionalism and commercialization

1	“…I’m sure the smaller, more dependable optician is far better for you in the long run. It might be dearer, but I’m sure you get a better service.” [Fg3]
2	“What they are really after is selling you glasses, I think”. [FG1]
3	. “They only call me back every year because they are looking for business.” [FG1]
4	“With vision….most people use what is really private medicine, because the optician is all about private medicine”. [FG2]
5	“They try and sell you these thin things now, you look like Dr. Spock in Star Trek. I mean, they’re not decent.” [FG2]
6	“You go to a dentist or you go to an optician and they tell you all the problems you’ve got because of that (gestures as if playing with money)”. [FG4
7	“But it’s very difficult, going to have your eyes tested, and they say your prescription has changed, to say ‘Well thank you very much, I’ll take my prescription somewhere else’. You feel you’re a captive audience there”. [FG5]
8	“I was quite favourably impressed with the commercial optician because they did seem to pick up the fact that there was something wrong at an early stage”. [FG1]
9	“…there is a consensus here that they are robbers, but they are not.” [FG1]