Karen Pizzitola & The Eyeglass Place

We come to our professions in a variety of ways: education, family connections or just sheer luck. Few of us can say we found our calling because someone else was out for a night of partying.

Karen Pizzitola’s story begins just that way. Today, Pizzitola owns The Eyeglass Place in Ellington, Conn. Her introduction to the optical business came about because a friend of hers was dating the manager of an optical business in New York.

“One night, he had a little too much to drink and offered all of her friends jobs,” Pizzitola recalled. “When he sobered up the next day, I told him I was the one he offered the job to. Back then, there was no school for becoming an optician, so it was an apprenticeship program where I had to work under other people, borrow books from people and hope I was studying the right thing. Then there was a national test I had to take.”

Pizzitola decided to take that route for an education, in part so her parents didn’t have to pay for college, and she would still earn a degree.

“I really liked it,” she said. “I’m rather analytical in my thought process, and it’s a very analytical job.”

As Pizzitola’s daughter, Laura, grew up, she also became interested in the business.

“She would come to work with me sometimes and see what I had when I brought things home,” Pizzitola shared. “She helped me work on training manuals because I was always in management. She came up through the ranks.” 

A little over 20 years ago, Laura joined her mother in the optical business, forming the only mother-daughter optical business in Connecticut.

An Eye For Opportunity

About 25 years ago, Pizzitola became interested in shooting. The husband of a friend of hers is a lifelong shooter, and he was starting a summertime shooting class for some of the employees at Pratt & Whitney, a jet engine manufacturer based in Hartford, Conn. 

“I thought it sounded interesting, so I joined the class,” she said. “I was good at it, and I liked it. I stuck with it and got up to Master level in Bullseye Shooting. Since then, I’ve won four national titles, and I’ve represented the United States at Camp Perry, where there were over 800 shooters. I was in the top 20.”

Once other shooters learned Pizzitola was an optician, they started asking her for help.

“People would come up and say, ‘I’m having trouble with my iron sights,’” she said. “Or they’d say, ‘I’m getting a flare in the red dot. Can you do anything about it?’”

Pizzitola experimented with different lenses to try to help her fellow shooters and learned as she went along.

“I did a little homework and tried various things to come up with something that would actually work and be an adjustment to help them see the front sight and the target,” she stated. “Not at the same time, obviously; our eyes don’t do that. But so they could go between the two and hold their head in a comfortable position. Sometimes something would work for one person but not for another. So, I would try something else. I had to figure out ways to get around people’s issues so they could enjoy their sport again.”

Finding The Best Match

Over time, Pizzitola developed what she terms her “bag of tricks” for helping shooters who wear glasses. Her reputation spread by word of mouth; more and more shooters found their way to her door, asking for help.

“Things just kind of morphed from there into me helping people who are doing speed shooting and IDPA and Cowboy Shooting and mostly clays now,” Pizzitola said. “People in the sport want help and they want to be able to do their sport again. And each person is a little different; what works for one person may not work for another. I’m able to dig deep and find out exactly what it is they’re challenged with, and then, knowing the products as I do, find the best product to match it.” 

In 2019, Pizzitola purchased The Eyeglass Place of Newington, Conn., where she had worked when she was a teenager.

“The owner wanted to retire, so I bought it six months before COVID hit,” she said. “I ran it for six years.”

While she was running The Eyeglass Place of Newington, Pizzitola was thinking about her dream of owning an optical shop where she lived in Ellington.

“Laura and I decided to take a leap of faith,” she said. In 2022, they opened The Eyeglass Place of Ellington. She ran both stores until she sold the Newington portion of the business three years ago.

Effective Advertising

Today, customers come from all over the Northeast for Pizzitola to help them with their glasses issues.

“I have someone who comes from New Hampshire, and someone else coming from New York in a couple of days,” she noted. “I also have people who come from Rhode Island. Information spreads by word of mouth. Everyone tells me nobody else does this.”

In her store, Pizzitola has a private room with a target set up where customers can bring their own firearms or use a Bluegun while she evaluates what each shooter needs. For those who aren’t near her, sometimes Pizzitola is able to help customers long distance; several retailers across the country refer customers to her.

“What I can do depends on what they want done,” she said. “If it’s iron sights, I would prefer to see them because it’s different for everybody. If it’s clays, I really just need to get them the right size frames and I need their pupil measurements, so sometimes I can do those long-distance.”

Pizzitola’s reputation continues to spread through word of mouth.

“A lot of the guys I’ve helped with go back to their ranges and put a poster up and put cards with it,” she said. (Pizzitola shared this represents her best advertising.)

Keeping prices within the means of the average shooting enthusiast is something Pizzitola is proud to offer.

“My lowest package price is $297 for a frame and carbonate lenses,” she shared. 

The price can go up from there, but most of the glasses she makes are $500 or less. 

Sales On The Road

Besides working with shooters in her store, Pizzitola often travels to them, too. She visits stores and ranges within about two hours of Ellington.

“A lot of my customers are in the Greenwich area,” she said. “It’s a good two hours away. I went to a range there and saw them for the day. We brought our trial lenses and shooters were able to bring their prescriptions. We were able to do everything we do here. I do a lot of women’s events, too.”

She also receives invitations to events all around the area.

“There might be a big match or big competition, and I’m invited to come talk about what I do and the products I use,” she shared. This gives shooters a chance to see what she has used to help others, and to experiment a little with things such as different colored lenses for clays.

Pizzitola said men and women have some interesting differences in what they look for in specialized shooting glasses.

“I think the guys are a little more competitive than the ladies are, and when they get into a sport, they want all the things,” she noted. “Ladies tend to just get something that functions. They’re the opposite with regular glasses. With regular glasses, women want all the things and all the pretties and all the look, whereas men are more ‘function’ buyers. It’s weird how they’re opposite.”

Pizzitola has turned what began as a job offer from an inebriated store manager into a lifetime calling that has helped hundreds of shooters. 

“Helping shooters enjoy their sport again is wonderful,” she concluded. “It gets me excited about this job all over again.” 

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