When Macario Palma was a kid, he had his sights set on becoming an architect, but life had something else in store that led him to vision care.
“Optics simply presented itself to me when I least expected it,” said Palma, who recently bought Walnut Creek’s Site for Sore Eyes franchise in May.
His background included working for that Site for Sore Eyes franchisor, Emerging Vision, which trained him in glasses manufacturing, eye exam pretesting and eyewear sales more than 23 years ago.
Born in Mexico City and raised in Berkeley, where he lives today with his wife, Nore Aguilar, and their three sons, Palma worked as an optician and lab technician and later became manager at the store and eye clinic that he recently purchased.
He was there from 2006 to 2016 and went to work for health care provider Kaiser Permanente in 2017 as the optical department manager at Kaiser’s Park Shadelands Medical Offices. He left there this year to become his own boss, which Palma says was an obvious next step.
“The need to become a business owner has to do with the gained rounded understanding and knowledge in optics, as well as the opportunity to work side-by-side with an optometrist to enhance someone’s vision in each encounter,” he said.
Coming full-circle for Palma at Site for Sore Eyes, he said the transition in ownership has been smooth and heartening — especially with rejoining all the employees and clients he bonded with years before.
“The greatest pleasure has been to reconnect with individuals I assisted during the decade I worked in the location,” he said.
Even the community work culture was still there.
“The philosophy has never changed,” he said. “It is to provide great and reliable service and build relationships in the neighborhood and neighboring areas.”
The business is a family affair too, since his wife and three boys who are all younger than 13 have been helping him on weekends and during the boys’ summer break “to make the store and space inviting and practical.”
Palma is making some big changes to his service as well. For their patients’ convenience, he and Dr. Traci Dolezel, the Walnut Creek location’s independent doctor of optometry, are adding a new autorefractor. The sophisticated instrument performs retinoscopy and provides an objective refraction. Not only that, he’s changing the efficiency for his customers too.
“I am working on providing faster manufacturing turnaround for those in need of emergency eyewear replacement, as well as walk-in eye exam appointments with better access,” said Palma, who also donates eyewear to the local Lions Club chapter to help those in need.
One more area he’s working to improve upon is providing faster manufacturing.
“The typical turnaround time for glasses manufacturing is two to three weeks in many nearby places. I am currently working on minimizing the process to one to two weeks turnaround for multifocal glasses and next day for most single-vision glasses,” he said.
Palma says he’s already experiencing the satisfaction of ownership despite having only owned the business for a few months.
“The joy of owning a business is the commitment to yourself, alongside the many options of product one has, to address the optical needs of those seeking your help,” he said.
When he’s not working, Palma spends time with his family, he says.
“I am a busy father and have adopted the hobbies of partaking in the majority of their activities and educational growth,” he said.
The Site for Sore Eyes location in Walnut Creek first opened in 1979. It provides eye exams, contact fittings, glasses repair, designer frames, general eye care treatment and comprehensive optometry, but Palma says something else really sets his vision care apart from all the rest.
“The history of the location, the longstanding relationships and the long-term staff develops with the customers in the community,” he said.
Palma’s advice to those considering owning their own business is to “follow your set goals,” stating that he set his own goals and is now living them.
“Since I began working as an optician in 2006 to now owning it in 2025, the goal of providing great customer service remains key to my personal and team’s success,” he said. “Also being able to share my gained knowledge is a key factor.”
Walnut Creek’s location of Site for Sore Eyes is at 1599 Botelho Drive, on the corner of South California Bouleverad (across from Petco). The location is open from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. For more details or to scheduel an eye appointment, visit siteforsoreeyes.com/walnut-creek online.
Reach Charleen Earley, a freelance writer and journalism professor at Diablo Valley college, at charleenbearley@gmail.com or 925-383-3072.