Because the dollar store readers are not made to correct hyperopia (“farsightedness”); they

are made to correct presbyopia (the loss of focusing flexibility that hits all of us in our early
40s). Presbyopia occurs in all of us in a relatively equal way, so making a standardized power
for presbyopia is easy.

Basically, the cheater readers are making the assumption that the wearer has perfect
distance vision, and simply brings the focal point forward to a comfortable reading distance.

Now, plus power lenses that correct for presbyopia also happen to help with hyperopia.
However, unless your hyperopia just coincidentally happens to be equal between your eyes,
free of astigmatism, and of a small enough amount, the readers are only partially correcting
it. It may be better than nothing, or even good enough for practical use in many cases, but
they do not usually fully or adequately correct the hyperope’s vision.

As far as myopia (“nearsightedness”) goes, its generally too unique to the individual to
standardize in a “drug store reader” kind of way. Plus if people are self-diagnosing/correcting
myopia, they almost always tend to overcorrect it, making them prone to eyestrain,
headaches, and if they are young enough, a worsening of their prescription. In fact a huge
part of the refraction procedure (“one or two?”) is making sure the patient hasn’t
overcorrected themselves.

A friend got lasik and the doc used something that basically did all the 1 or 2 stuff automatically, and apparently

you can get the same without lasik by getting an exam for high definition lenses. I'm pretty sure this Wavefront

thing is it: https://www.allaboutvision.com/eye-exam/wavefront.htm

Wavefront technology developed for custom LASIK may soon be used routinely by eye doctors to better

diagnose vision problems in eye exams, perhaps making the familiar eye chart obsolete.

Most people have had eye exams with a device called a phoropter, which contains many lenses of different

powers. An ophthalmologist or optometrist changes the lenses in front of your eyes, asking which lens produces

the best image.

With this conventional approach, information you give the eye doctor is very subjective, based more on what

you think you see instead of what you actually see. But a wavefront measurement is objective, because vision

errors can be identified automatically by the way light waves travel through the eye.

Someday, these detailed wavefront measurements may replace conventional eyeglass or contact lens

prescriptions, which describe vision problems only in terms of the eye's nearsightedness, farsightedness and

astigmatism.

Just as custom (or "wavefront-guided") LASIK has the potential for producing sharper vision than conventional

LASIK, glasses and contact lenses made with this advanced technology may also produce better visual clarity

than their conventional counterparts.

 So, most of the answers are correct in a way. i.e. you can't buy farsighted glasses reliably off a shelf for

various reasons.

But, the reason your glasses cost $300 is a completely different story. The majority of the market is dominated

by one manufacturer, which also owns a majority of the retail outlets, which also (90% chance) runs your vision

insurance. So, they making the glasses, in some cases the lenses, administering your insurance, and own a lot

of the retail places where you're buying glasses at. Essentially, at any point you enter the product world of

glasses you're getting screwed by a huge monopoly. The other piece of this is a lot of these retail centers the

people there actually earn commissions. Those lens upgrades, how many different companies produce anti glare?

Scratch resistance? They're selling you options that you can't really see and unless you need transition lenses

don't really need. I recently had lasik surgery but before that I would order frames/lenses with no coatings and

not have issues ($17 dollars was what i paid after my last exam & pair of glasses). There are also online

manufacturers like Zenni optical where as long as you have an up to date script you can get a pair of glasses

shipped to you for 30-40 bucks.

Their brands include (I"m talking about luxottica here)

Eyemed (insurance, and often where other insurance companies are getting their administration through).

Okley, sunglass hut, lens crafters, person, oliver peoples, pearle vision, target optical, ray ban, eye care plan of

america, glasses.com.

They merged with a large lens manufacturer in 2017:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/business/dealbook/luxottica-essilor-merger.html

More reading if you're interested:

https://theweek.com/articles/784436/secretive-megacompanies-behind-glasses

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anaswanson/2014/09/10/meet-the-four-eyed-eight-tentacled-monopoly-that-i

s-making-your-glasses-so-expensive/#89a54256b66b

John Oliver also mentions them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00wQYmvfhn4