Those on the west side of Ann Arbor now can pick up a pair of prescription glasses along with their gallon of milk and loaf of bread.
The Optical Shop has opened an eyecare center in the lone vacant spot up for lease in the Scio Township Meijer on Jackson Road near Zeeb.
Owned by US Vision, The Optical Shop has a selection of more than 500 frames including designer and children’s packages, as well as an optometrist on-site for exams by appointment and walk-in.
With the Scio Township location, US Vision now owns 20 Optical Shop storefronts, all of which are located within Meijer stores.
“One of the benefits of supermarkets is that they have neighborhood people coming in frequently,” said Brandy Peterson, store manager and optician. “Everybody is so rushed people can just pop right in to get their eyes examined or fill a prescription they have in their wallet.”
Meijer looks for tenants to fill their leased space that will provide a service benefitting their customers, said Frank Guglielmi, Meijer’s director of public relations. “That’s why you see a lot of service-oriented things [in Meijer] like banks, nail salons and haircutting places,” said Guglielmi.
He also said each of the three Meijer stores in the Ann Arbor area offer something unique.
“If you look at the Carpenter Road store in Ypsilanti, that’s the Eastern Michigan store and a lot of college students go through that store,” said Guglielmi. “The Ann Arbor-Saline store is the UM store [again] with a higher volume of students. Scio Township—that’s what we call a flagship store with more high-end food options, more imported and specialized foods, a wine area with a wine steward. There are only a handful of those types of stores. It’s not catering as much to the college environment, but to the community around there.”
Optometrist Maneek Sandhu is on site at The Optical Shop on a rotating schedule of Wednesdays and Fridays one week and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the next. The store has completed its hiring of two staff people.
Business has been good since the store’s soft opening on June 29, said Peterson, with 30 people on a waiting list for the doctor before she started July 18.
The Optical Shop is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m.