Vision Quest Cozza Optical Helps Customers Get A Good Look And Look Good

Cozza Optical may deserve a closer look.

Surviving in a world of discount and one-hour lens and frame shops, a sharp focus on style and service has brought success to the independent, family-run optical shop.

Sam and Barbara Cozza met when he was director of the optical department for Group Health. She was a sales representative for Calvin Klein frames. They could see a future together.

In the mid-1990s, with nearly two decades of experience, Sam Cozza decided to go to work for himself.

In 1996 they opened their first store at Wall and Rowan in North Spokane. He ran the business, while she kept her job selling frames.

But then a storefront in the downtown Paulsen Building became available. They couldn’t pass up the high ceilings, oak woodwork and large windows that looked out on Riverside Avenue.

Now the Cozzas and five other people run the two stores and keep thousands of customers in good vision.

Inside the downtown store, hundreds of glasses are perched on glass shelves and along counters.

With brands such as Fendi, Calvin Klein, Neostyle and Cazal, the Cozza’s believe they can fit anyone. Snappy gold frames, sleek silver ones and even those with leopard spots attest to the shop’s ability to keep up with the latest trends.

“We have the best selection in the city, without question,” Sam Cozza boasted. “We infused thousands and thousands of dollars into new product - all cutting-edge stuff.”

With the price of glasses ranging from $20 to $600 a pair, the Cozza’s say they have something for everyone.

“To some people they’re just a commodity,” Barbara Cozza said. “But really, they are jewelry.”

While many customers get just one pair, she said, “We do have a patient who literally has 12 pairs of glasses. When he pays one pair off he picks out a new pair.”

While they have the latest styles, the Cozzas don’t neglect tradition and history.

They have won the blessings from Spokane’s godfathers of glasses, Tom E. Day and Jim Gump.

Day, who long ago sold his well-known downtown business and retired, came in to visit Sam Cozza a few years ago.

“He brought his hand tools and a picture of him and his wife at a Vision Expo at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the 1950s,” Cozza said. “It was quite an honor. It was kind of like he was passing over the crown.”

Cozza said he’s tried to pattern his business after Day’s. Cozza Optical is one of the few independent optical shops that grinds and polishes its own lenses and fits people into frames. Many shops send their orders to a wholesale grinder. The Cozza’s have all the equipment in the back of their store.

Gump owned Thavis Optical, which had been in the Paulsen Building since 1949. Cozza said he’s lucky to follow such an old and respected business. He purchased the store’s patient files and took on a number of its customers. They still use the Thavis name because it was so widely known. And even Gump gets his glasses from them.

When Cozza Optical started, many clients were elderly. A change in product line attracted new patients, and their good work brought references from eye specialists all over town.

“Now it’s all walks,” Sam Cozza said of his clients: attorneys, nuns, surgeons, retirees, hockey players, children, even street people who get lenses with public assistance.

Success has not come without setbacks. In July of 1998 their North Side store burned down.

“It was terrible,” Barbara Cozza said. “We lost everything in there.” But they recovered and reopened the shop nearly six months later.

The Cozzas stay busy running the two shops. Though they’d like to expand, they also want to keep the personal feel of their business.

Both Cozzas say their success is based on their approach to style and customer service. That’s how they compete with the chain stores, Cozza said. The Cozzas promise to take more than an hour to make your glasses.

“It’s something that made our business really take off,” said Sam Cozza. “We brought back quality and service.”