LiFeon a need to know basis with your spouse. Hence the request for a receipt that matches what you...

www.bottomleyopticians.co.uk #BetterAtBottomleys t: 01422 331031

By Jim Bottomley

Celebrating 70 amazing years

The Bottomley’s

RandolphBottomley

JohnBottomley

JimBottomley

LiFeI have been working for Bottomley Opticians, in Halifax and Lindley solidly for the last 13 years.

Long before that I worked for the company when we were located on Commercial Street in Halifax. I started at the age of 10, when I would accompany my father to work on a Saturday morning. At the time I didn’t understand what I was doing for myself but I have to tell you that every day I draw on what I was learning each Saturday as a kid.

The culture at Bottomley’s was very much engineered by Randolph Bottomley and it was really centred around how to serve. Randolph, who was my grandfather, apart from being a great optician was a great businessman too. He understood the simple rules of treating people well and in turn those clients treated him well by talking about their happy experience at the opticians to friends and family…. and the business grew. I can still hear him telling me “we have to give our patients a reason to climb up those stairs.” In those days on Commercial street we had more stairs than here at The Old Town Hall but he’s just as right today as he was back then.

Since then the business has gradually grown and moved to our current location at The Old Town Hall on Union Street by the top entrance to the Piece Hall. My father John Bottomley undertook this huge project and moved the company forward with greater presence, more space and level access. We’ve been housed at the OTH for the past 18 years would you believe?! John has been living on the beautiful island of Tiree for the last few years and we have built a small practice to keep him out of mischief. At 4 hours each way on the ferry we have saved the islanders a day or two of their lives every year when they need to go to the opticians.

In the time where I wasn’t working for BottomleyOpticians I worked for two or three other opticians and used the skills I had and learned new ones. What I noticed most about each place I worked was the gap in the culture and attitude of the business. It was far more concentrated on figures than people. The fulfilment wasn’t there and it seemed at odds with what I had learned in my earlier days.

How I ended up back at Bottomley Opticians years later is another story but when I did I was determined to use what “RB” had taught me.

After all … he’s the reason we have the business I’m involved in running.


Spouse Trouble

Someone shared this sign with me recently from an opticians in the US. It made me laugh because it is true! It appears the phenomenon is rampant! As a high quality opticians we frequently get requests like this. The Bottomley team often get a hurried whisper in their ear when the spouse is just out of earshot “Please don’t mention the price!”

We even have some clients who have a nice wardrobe of eye-wear with many different styles for wearing at different

times, but they somehow have convinced their spouse that they only have ‘1 or 2’ pairs. Who knows how they pull that off?

Unfortunately, some spouses just don’t understand that you can’t put a price on the joy of looking and feeling great in your eye-wear.The only thing you wear every day, your glasses do more mileage than any other item you own.Often the spouse in question has never experienced the pain of

bad glasses, that neither fit, nor flatter you. They don’t know how annoying the wrong glasses can be. Usually they don’t understand the deep psychological challenges you had to overcome when wearing glasses as a child. And therefore they find it difficult to appreciate fine eye-wear. And in general they don’t understand how inconvenient it is to not be able to see a thing without them!

A pair of glasses you actually enjoy wearing is

worth it’s weight in gold. You know that. But in the case of your love affair with eye-wear, sometimes it’s just simpler to not have to discuss it. To keep things on a need to know basis with your spouse. Hence the request for a receipt that matches what you told your spouse you paid. If you want play it the other way and be completely open and honest with your spouse here are some tips to arm you for battle. This will help you state your case for NOT going to Specsavers.

• Calculate the cost per wear. Take the amount of money you spent on your last pair of glasses and divide it by how many years or days you wore them for. Maths can be your friend here.

• Speak from the heart about how happy your glasses make you and, “do they not want you to be happy?” “Is that too much to ask?” Add some melodrama for effect.

• Compare and contrast your eye-wear purchases with the amount your spouse spends on something that they like, that probably isn’t as essential as vision. That should do the trick. Case closed.

Those 3 tips will hopefully help you avoid divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable eye-wear differences.

Talking of falling in love with your new eye-wear...


Party Time!

New Lenses for Driving: Reduce Glare/Dazzle from Headlights

This is one of the best times of the year to see brand new eye-wear styles as new frames from our recent trade fair trips pour in! Here are just a few examples of what’s new from Theo. We have fantastic new styles to show you at the minute. Just call us to arrange an eye-wear styling consultation or pop in.

We keep talking about the fact that this year we are 70 years old as a company! To mark this we decided to have 3 birthday parties throughout the year and invite as many of you as we could.

We were honoured to have your company and share these events with you.Our first party was in April and as we’d not long been back from Milan the evening had a bit of an Italian theme...prosecco all round! Duncan from Vanni (a great Italian eye-wear brand) accepted our invite so he could tell us a bit about the company and why they like being involved with Bottomley Opticians.

We had some wonderful Italian food provided from NOCO who are based just outside our windows in the Westgate Arcade and everyone remarked how fresh and tasty it was!

John and Sue Bottomley came down for the occasion and John gave us a brief history ofBottomley’s and talked about how Randolph set it up in 1948 and the various milestones along the way to us moving from 10 Commercial Street down to the Old Town Hall where we are today. Chris from Zeiss gave us a bit of an insight into the company and how it works and why they enjoy being our lens partners.

He also announced that as of May this year all Zeiss lenses would have UV400 Block built into the fabric of the substance as standard. UV protection is a vital consideration and Zeiss are the first people to roll this out and have their own special way of doing this. What impressed me was the fact that they are not patenting it as they see it as important that all lens manufacturers follow suit. This follows one of Zeiss’ core principles “to make the world a better place”. After lots of chats and a few drinks there was a raffle, and musical entertainment from our very own Andy Greaves. To round the evening up

we moved the party down to our fantastic newBottomleys Eye-wear Boutique in the Piece Hall where more drinks were waiting and our guests could have a privileged look around before we officially opened it on the 1st May. We were a little apprehensive about doing this event as we’d never done anything like it before but I have to say I was chuffed to bits with how it all flowed and the lovely responses we got from the 24 of you who attended. We look forward to putting on other events like this and if you would like to be at them please send us an email and we will happily put you on the invite [email protected]

Now that we’re in the season of short days and dark nights the visual difficulties of driving at night become even more noticeable. The consequences of not seeing a pedestrian or another vehicle until a second too late can be dramatic. According to research almost every ninth traffic accident can be traced back to poor vision. Lens manufacturers have been developing lenses specifically for driving with some recent advances that can make a positive improvement in drivers confidence.The big problem for many drivers is glare from headlights.

The new generation of car headlights especially cause problems as they dazzle drivers, effectively blinding them for a couple of seconds. They do not damage the eye, but they can dazzle road users so that you no longer see anything. Zeiss have researched this and now have single vision and varifocal lenses specifically designed to improve your vision when driving, and minimise disturbing glare effects from headlights. The varifocal options have a greater emphasis to distance and intermediate vision, so you get the widest clarity whether


Welcome Aboard

I’d like to officially welcome all our new clients from this month.Karen H, Karen M, Mary B, William H, William R, Julie S, Anna Z, Julian W, Fridea R, John F,

John G, Brenda F, Roger G, David G, Denise B, Ruth W, Bernard H, Robin TWELCOME! WE’RE GLAD YOU FOUND US.

Refer a Friend Contest

Wishing you a Fabulous Christmas and an amazing New Year!

Bottomey Opticians LiFe is a monthly conversation about life as it looks from the helm of Bottomley Opticians ….I believe in relationships and we really value having a strong relationship with our customers. This is our way of being open and showing people what we’re like. For new customers, as we grow I don’t personally meet lots of you. This unusual publication is an open dialogue between us so that you can get to know who we are as a company, and painful as it can be, we like to show some of our personality. We’re not a faceless company. For regular clients, many of you only come in once a year or once every two years. We can go a long time without seeing you and a lot can happen in a year or 2. Hence, we like to keep in touch. Your feedback is invaluable. I’m extremely interested in what our customers have to say. I enjoy responding to comments, and finally, I enjoy writing it! Please send your thoughts and comments on what we’re talking about to [email protected] Every month I will try to rise to the mammoth challenge of making an opticians’ newsletter a riveting read. If I’ve failed in your eyes to do that, you can unsubscribe by just sending an email to [email protected]

you’re looking straight ahead or in the periphery. Additionally, with an extended intermediate area it is quicker and easier to view your dashboard and sat nav. You can then accurately return to your distance focus, to continue driving safely and with greater assurance. If you have particular difficulties driving at night or driving in general, especially if you drive a lot, just call or email the team who can let you know which driving lenses are most suitable for you.

Stay where the Beatles stayed in Halifax in 1964!

Two Luxury Prizes to Win!Enjoy an unforgettable fine-dining experience for two, and then spend the night in luxury, followed by breakfast in the hotel where John, Paul, George and Ringo stayed. All you need to do is recommend Bottomley Opticians to any of your friends who have not yet experienced our service.Both you and the recommended friend will then be entered into this amazing prize draw. At the eye examination your friend must give us your name and address for you to be eligible.

Both yours and your friend’s name will then be entered into the draw. Recommending more friends gives you more chances of winning. Prize draw on Christmas Eve – GOOD LUCK!

LiFeon a need to know basis with your spouse. Hence the request for a receipt that matches what you...

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