What killed Pharmacy was the boom in ACPE accrediting pharmacy schools, which resulted in a HUGE surplus of students and no jobs. The state I live in had 4 when I graduated...and now we have 14. This has decreased salaries and worsened working conditions for the entire profession. A lot of this was caused by the pharmacy chains, who financially supported the new schools and saw this as a means of eventually achieving cheap(er) labor. I don't know enough about Optometry to know if you have that same situation. There were also many schools accredited who didn't deserve to be, resulting in poor quality graduates. Some never make it past the state boards, but many do. But the retail chains have never been about quality as long as their new hires will work for lower wages. It's a pretty vicious circle which shows no signs of improving. When I graduated, you could literally work anywhere and LARGE sign on bonuses were common. New grads will never see that, and will only know that they can be easily replaced by someone who will likely work cheaper. I know some licensed pharmacists personally that graduated 4-5 years ago who still haven't landed their first full time job and have >200k in debt. Who would willingly put themselves in that situation? It boggles my mind....