After an extended absence, Bonhomme à lunettes is back in Gatineau. Since mid-September, we're making weekly stops at local community organizations. Gatineau residents are able to save big on their eyewear purchases and enjoy our excellent service.
But who's Bonhomme à lunettes anyway ?
Excellent question! Bonhomme à lunettes is a community-based eyewear store created in 2007 dedicated to making eyewear purchases accessible to everyone. Thanks to an innovative (and much-imitated) business model, we offer customers inexpensive eyewear without sacrificing quality or service. We have partnerships with many community organizations that allow us to set up shop in their space each week. In exchange, our operations help generate funds to support their work. In fact, we have donated more than one million dollar to our partners since we started doing this more than fifteen years ago.
Thanks to accessible prices, excellent warranties and attentive, respectful customer service, we've earned the trust of people from Montréal, Montérégie, Lanaudière, the Laurentians, Centre-du-Québec, the Eastern Townships.
OUR GATINEAU OPERATIONS – TAKE TWO
Some Gatineau residents may remember that we used to make local stops there a few years ago. We once had two very popular points of service in Gatineau, but two unfortunate turn of events —the floods in 2019 followed by the pandemic—forced us to scale things back.
Philippe Rochette, founder of Bonhomme à lunettes, ultimately had to resign himself, explaining that:
“ Before the pandemic hit, we looked at a number of ways we could go back to Gatineau, but our particular business model made this a bit more complicated. Truth be told, I had kind of written it off as a possibility and had come to terms with the fact that our Saint-André location would be our only point of service in the Outaouais region. ”
But all this changed thanks to Julie Tittley, General Manager at Centre Alpha Papineau. Lorsqu’elle contacte Philippe pour lui proposer de faire un point de service à Buckingham, Philippe lui fait part des défis liés au modèle d’affaires du Bonhomme.
“ Ms. Tittley immediately started making calls and reaching out to her network and, just like that, we had partners interested in setting up service points. From there, everything just fell into place for our return to Gatineau. »
Two weekly service points in Gatineau
The dynamism of the community sector strikes again! Thanks to these two service points, the people of Gatineau and surrounding areas can enjoy excellent value on the purchase of eyeglasses. And that’s value you can count on, as confirmed by this survey made by Verdict Santé de Protégez-vous.
Want to come and see what this is all about ? Easy: just bring your prescription (unfortunately, we don't do eye exams) and check out our schedule to find the service point that better fits your needs. And remember, we serve everyone, no exceptions.
Looking forward to seeing you in Gatineau!
crédit photo: Harleyd613 via Wikicommons