Which brings me to my next questions, which I think are important ones.
1. How important are good optician in each shop (yes, all will be qualified)? I think we really do not know how good those optician who test your eyes are nor can we choose. Like doctors, all are qualified, but there are some who will be better. I just worry some may be juniors or have little experienced for whatever reasons. And of course some shops have been around for a while, thus, these optician may be more experienced (i.e., older).
2. Or is not relevant if they have better equipment to test your eyes? I see some shops can invest in better equipment (looks really sophisticated ones to me) while some shops still uses the "older" equipment since many many years ago. I guess those equipment are really expensive and they cannot continue to keep buying or upgrading, when it still works. Like computers, they are some with the mentality that my old computer can still work, why I need to upgrade / buy new one every year whereas they are some that needs that upgrade to offer better specs and services or makes it easier etc.
Thus, are eye testing equipment important or doesn't matter as long as there is one (be it new / old ones), especially for those using progressive or have more lens customisation / demand.
So yeah, do we go for:
1.) an older shop that is able to give more discounts but may not have the latest equipment or
2.) go for those shops that is able to afford better equipment, thus, charge higher price?