Ten years ago you could buy a pair of sunglasses for $30. In 2013 that same pair will cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars. How is it that a couple of pieces of plastic or wire, a few screws, and a couple pieces of glass can cost more than a computer? The answer is to be found in one word — monopoly. For every single person on earth who is wearing an expensive pair of sunglasses or eyeglasses, there a very good chance they were made by a little known but very big Italian company called Luxottica. Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes recently sat down with the CEO of Luxottica (a notoriously camera shy company) to talk about how this is possible. And the real shocker is not that Luxottica makes all the expensive eyewear in the world — it also has everything to do with how these glasses are sold.
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