Vision Works

Visionworks is a national optical retailer that provides eye exams, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and related vision care products through full-service vision centers. Each location typically pairs an optometrist’s office with a retail showroom offering a wide selection of frames, lenses, and accessories, which helps drive steady, needs-based traffic throughout the week.

The company’s roots go back to 1988, when it entered the optical market and began growing through consolidation of regional eye care and eyewear chains. For many years it operated under the Eye Care Centers of America umbrella before adopting the Visionworks name as the brand expanded across the country. By the mid‑2010s, Visionworks had become one of the larger optical chains in the United States, supported by thousands of employees and more than a billion dollars in annual sales, placing it alongside other national vision players in major shopping districts and retail corridors.

A defining milestone came in 2019, when VSP Vision acquired Visionworks from Highmark Inc. The transaction brought together VSP’s large vision benefits membership and professional network with Visionworks’ brick‑and‑mortar footprint. Visionworks became a wholly owned subsidiary of VSP and continues to operate under its own name on storefronts and consumer marketing, while benefiting from the backing and integration of a major vision care organization.

As of October 2019, Visionworks operated approximately 711 locations across more than 40 states and the District of Columbia. The footprint at that time was weighted toward Texas, the Southeast, the Mid‑Atlantic, and select Midwest and Western markets. Stores are typically inline or end‑cap spaces in high‑traffic retail settings, often in power centers, community centers, urban storefronts, and enclosed malls. The format generally supports both exam rooms and an open, visible retail floor, allowing the brand to function as a health care provider and a repeat‑use retail tenant in the same box.

Over roughly the last five years, Visionworks has shifted from broad, standalone expansion to more selective, data‑driven growth under VSP Vision’s ownership. New locations and relocations have focused on markets where VSP member concentrations are strong and where health and wellness uses and daily‑needs traffic already perform well. Rather than racing into every untapped geography, the chain has emphasized infill in established trade areas, backfilling second‑generation medical and retail spaces, and opening in high‑growth suburban corridors within existing states.

Today, Visionworks continues to open and relocate stores in Texas, the Southeast, the Mid‑Atlantic, select Midwest metropolitan areas, and other growth corridors that align with VSP Vision’s membership base. Many new sites appear in suburban shopping centers alongside medical, dental, pharmacy, and other everyday‑use tenants, close to large employers or expanding residential neighborhoods. For landlords, brokers, and developers, Visionworks offers a recognizable health and wellness brand with a long operating history, national insurance backing, and traffic patterns tied to essential eye care needs, making it a durable anchor within multi‑tenant retail and mixed‑use environments.