Well, it was finally here – our first day in our new optical shop. It promised to be an interesting day, because we had absolutely no idea how it would develop and what we had to expect. The hard work of getting everything inside the shop exactly as we wanted it was over and now the fun could begin. Easier said than done, because we had not told anyone that today was the day. No advertisement in the paper, no listing in the yellow pages, no grand opening yet, no nothing. Would anyone realise that we are actually there?

Apart from providing the Tasman community with an alternative for chosing exciting eyewear, we knew that in order to succeed, we would have to provide extraordinary service. Well, we certainly were given a chance to to provide that today.

“CLAUDIA K” was never meant to be just another optometrist or glasses shop. What makes us slightly different is the fact that we have an actual glasses and repair lab on the premises. That is important, because we are in a position to provide instant repairs and cut lenses the same day in many cases. That came in handy for at least 2 people in Motueka today.

When we arrived for work for the first time this morning, we had already someone waiting for us at the door who needed an instant repair. How did she know we would open today? Well, Motueka is a small place and good news spreads quickly. We were actually able to repair her glasses on the spot – “CLAUDIA K”s first customer. OK, it was only a small repair, but you try and wear your glasses with only one side attached. The other one had come off with a part missing. It was only a screw, but a special and not very common one. These small mishaps can be really annoying (of courese they always happen at the wrong time, usually just after shopclosing hours on a Saturday) and should not really happen in the first place, but as everyone knows, they do happen sometimes. And just so you know, small things like screw and/or nosepad replacements we don’t actually charge for. If we have the part and if we can help you by fitting it for you on your existing glasses, we’ll do it for free.

Not long after that a Korean tourist came into the shop. He was wearing dark prescription sunglasses and asked cautiously we could make him a pair of clear glasses with a similar prescription to his sunglasses. But he needed them today, because his car had been broken into and he had lost all his posessions, including his laptop, his passport and his prescription glasses. All he had left were the clothes he was wearing.

What? That is unbelievable! What sort of times are we living in?

Our son is currently traveling through Europe, we hope that this sort of thing will not happen to him! Why does it happen so often in New Zealand? Now, the stolen glasses should be the least of his worries. He was medium short-sighted with a prescription of around -4.00 diopters. For those of you not knowing how bad this is, the distance he was able to see clearly was up to about 25cm, anything beyond that is blurry for him. As you can imagine, with a prescription like that, you can end up with a reasonably thick glasses. Together we decided to use extra thin high index lenses with an anti reflective coating to produce an aestetically pleasing and light weight pair of new prescription glasses that he would be happy and comfortable to wear all day. It took us a couple of hours to make them for him, but it was great to see the smile on his face when he came to collect them!

Claudia and the Korean tourist with his brand new glasses after having lost almost everything else he posessed.

We promise not to bore everyone with the story behind every pair of glasses that leaves the “CLAUDIA K” store and assure you that we will use this blog only to address interesting stories like these ones and of course those special cases that may be of interest to others. So keep watching this space for things to come.