Empire City — Bracknell & Sons Optical of Pell Street reports that it has sold more field glasses in the past eleven weeks than in the preceding nine years, and that it has stopped asking customers what they intend to look at.

“We used to ask,” said Cornelius Bracknell IV, who has run the shop since his father retired in 1996. “It was a courtesy. You ask a man what he is looking at, you can sell him the correct lens. We stopped asking in August.”

Asked why, Mr. Bracknell said the answers had become repetitive.

The firm has operated from the same premises since 1911 and describes itself in this newspaper's own advertising columns as asking no questions. Mr. Bracknell confirmed the advertisement was written in August.

The Rooftop Package

The shop's best-selling item is a bundle it calls the rooftop package: a pair of 10×50 field glasses, a shoulder strap, a folding stool, and a thermos. Mr. Bracknell said the thermos was added in September after customers began returning for one.

There is a waiting list of two hundred and six.

Mr. Bracknell said the firm has no view on the Dragonfly, has never seen the Dragonfly, and would prefer not to appear in an article about the Dragonfly. He was advised this article concerns his shop.

“Every article concerns him,” Mr. Bracknell said.

Returns Are Also Up

Less remarked upon, and the reason this newspaper visited Pell Street at all, is that returns have risen at almost exactly the same rate as sales.

Customers are not returning the glasses because they are faulty. Mr. Bracknell produced a ledger in which the reason for return is recorded in the customer's own words. Fourteen entries read works fine. Nine read nothing wrong with it. One reads the lens is not the problem.

“A lens does what a lens does,” Mr. Bracknell said. “It gathers what is there. If you cannot see him, I would gently suggest that is not a failure of the glass.”

Dr. Helena Vosk, professor of applied optics at Empire City Community College, agreed, and asked that this be the last time she is telephoned about the matter.

This newspaper's photo editor, Desmond R. Quail, is recorded in the ledger twice. Once as a purchase and once as a return. The reason for return is given as works fine.