TO M HAR R IS AR C HIT EC TUR AL PHO TOG R APHY, CH IC AG O VSP GLOBAL (Rancho Cordova, Calif.), a not-for-profit provider of vision benefits, has gone the clicks-to-bricks route, launching a pair of prototype stores for its online Eyeconic retail brand in Chicago. But that move goes beyond a simple brand extension. VSP says it has a strategic bottom-line reason for launching physical branches in Chi-town: it was seeing higher out-of-network claims by its members there, who were going to optical chains or mass retailers around the city instead of shopping for frames or contact lenses through its online arm. Having its own stores is a way to help reduce such "leakage," the company says, by offering what VSP Retail President Bill Vaughan describes as "a differentiated eye care and eyewear experience." Tasked to create that space was the branded environ- VMSD.COM | MARCH/APRIL 2020 31http://www.VMSD.COM