Q. What longtime Scenic City business celebrated a milestone 41 years ago this spring?
A. Eyear Optical opened Tennessee’s first optical, one-hour superstore, the Eyear Optical Factory, on Rossville Boulevard in 1984.
The store was an example of a “megoptical,” according to the April 1, 1984, edition of the Chattanooga News-Free Press. Megopticals normally covered 5,000 to 22,000 square feet, carried large inventories and employed more than 20 people. The stores usually included a fitting counter and an optometrist next door or in the next room, the News-Free Press story said. After the customer visited the optometrist, most prescriptions for glasses or contacts could be filled in one hour.
Eyear owner Jim Crittenden said he expected to draw customers from a 70-mile radius. In 1984, Crittenden operated 12 stores under the Eyear banner, including eight in the Chattanooga area.