Dave

Your recent correspondence regarding Monday openings was a gross mischaracterization of the facts to
which I take strong exception.   

Through the hard work of our associates over many years, Empire Vision has become a leader in our
industry.  The level of service we provide, the value we provide, and the products we provide to our valued
customers are second to none.  
We were well ahead of the curve when we eliminated scratch coating, a staple that many of our competitors
still sell today.  
We were one of the first to successfully introduce package pricing and subsequently bundling with a lens
technology superior to anything our competitors promote as their lens of choice.
We are leaders in the technology we provide to our customer in regard to polycarbonate, transitions, ARC,
and aspheric design lenses.  
Our free eyewear breakage guarantee still remains unmatched amongst our competition.  
The investment we have made in our company, particularly with regard to remodels and relocations, has
been aggressive, to say the least.  
We brought in-house the latest AR Coating technology (that we had historically outsourced) at significant
capital expense which brought with it the additional benefit of expanding the number of bargaining unit
associates.  
We continue to have a workforce that has prospered in this environment and culture, which is evident by the
sheer numbers of associates with substantial tenure at Empire Vision.
 
Our business and management decisions have always come from within our organization with our internal and
external customers being the driving force.  We recognize that, in our business, we have two customers... our
associates and our customers.  We also extensively benchmark in our markets to stay competitive in an ever-
changing business environment.  We suffered a huge blow to our model when we lost the DCS contract.  As
we’ve discussed numerous times, that contract represented $9.6 million in revenue to our retail locations
across NYS, and there are 9 stores in the Albany market that will lose on average $400,000 in revenue this
year alone.  Yet, the company has not laid-off a single Union associate as a result of that loss.  We have a
unique business model that has allowed us to be successful over time, and our willingness to embrace
change has been a leading factor in our success.  

Your claim that the union had no input into possible alternatives to the Company’s approach to these difficult
times…is untrue.  Company management initiated a meeting with you, in advance, in the hope of garnering
some support for what we feel is an opportunity.  Our desire is to trial opening on Monday in select markets.  
The value of Monday operations is clear.  We are, and have been, at a competitive disadvantage by being
closed on Monday.  You will be hard-pressed to find anyone in our industry that will disagree.  

In addition, we intend to advertise more aggressively in 2008.  A significant portion of the advertising expense
will be on free-standing inserts in Sunday newspapers, a technique that most of our completion utilizes as
well. The 'value' of advertising is at its peak the following day and becomes less impactful every day
thereafter.  The competitive disadvantage of not opening on Monday is compounded by the fact that our
competition is.   We actually provide an advantage to the competition by not opening.

The selection of the trial markets was also a straight-forward process.  The Albany market was selected
because that is where we were hit the hardest by the loss of DCS.  As noted, there are 9 stores in the Albany
market that will lose on average $400,000 in revenue this year alone.  We have had negative comparable
store sales for almost a year now, and typically that is a very bad sign, which we need to address with new
ideas.

After two years in Buffalo, we have 4 stores averaging about 1/3 of an average single Doctor Empire Vision
Center location.  It is an extremely competitive market and we are committed to turning it around.  As for
Rhode Island, you likely know that these stores were open on Mondays before joining EVC.  Further, Buffalo
and Rhode Island are truly 'Retail' markets for us based on the competition as well as the smaller number of
managed care lives.  We need to consider operating with more of a retail mentality in these markets, and thus
the trial to operate a retail model.  It should be noted that our advertising commitment and effectiveness in
these markets is consistent with the previous comments.

       We view the Monday trials as a chance to grow and more importantly, to evolve to be more competitive
in the future.  Clearly, the number of associates will need to increase to handle the additional store hours.  
Already staffing schedules that provide favorable opportunities to existing associates are under consideration
in the affected stores.  We also want to reiterate, as you have acknowledged, that our labor agreement is
clear on this matter and has been since inception.  Your unwillingness to embrace this growth in the business
and in the bargaining unit is difficult to comprehend.

It is significant that, during our recent discussions, the union did not advance any significant proposals to
address the Monday trials or the underlying issues these trials are intended to address.  Also, those
discussions were the appropriate opportunity to address any true concerns about Sunday. Again, there was
no discussion on this topic.  Let me clarify for you that we have no interest in opening on Sundays.  Raising
the Sunday issue, as you have, is nothing more than a tactic to strike a cord of fear into the ranks of our
associates.

With respect to your “collective action,” Empire Vision has routinely abided by, and will continue to abide by,
the controlling provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.  However, we have no intention of engaging
you in a debate about the management of Empire Vision.  While you continue to try and make every decision
adversarial, the only thing we are trying to do is respond to an ever changing business environment and
continue to enjoy the type of success we have experienced in the past to the benefit of all of our associates.
 
 
Tom Rosa