Gym price discrimination
jonsteinberg.com
Gym price discrimination
1–10 of 44 posts
Re: Gym price discrimination
#2Amazing that an entrepreneur-in-residence would use GoDaddy for hosting:
http://jonsteinberg.com/2010/01/risk-and-doors/
Some of his other posts are good though.
Re: Gym price discrimination
#3I'm amazed that the described system works / is popular. At first I checked websites of gyms around me, expecting this scheme to be US-only - it isn't. Random UK gym has 8 membership types with 4 different access options (+ 3 different "offers" on top of that) without any price on the web. I've never heard of this before and it seems just crazy... I wonder if anyone checked how many people they would gain / how much money lose by having only 2/3-options with fixed, known prices.
Re: Gym price discrimination
#4Amazing that an entrepreneur-in-residence would use GoDaddy for hosting: http://jonsteinberg.com/2010/01/risk-and-doors/ Some of his other posts are good though.
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Re: Gym price discrimination
#5I'm amazed that the described system works / is popular. At first I checked websites of gyms around me, expecting this scheme to be US-only - it isn't. Random UK gym has 8 membership types with 4 different access options (+ 3 different "offers" on top of that) without any price on the web. I've never heard of this before and it seems just crazy... I wonder if anyone checked how many people they would gain / how much…
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Re: Gym price discrimination
#6Even worse, I signed up to LA Fitness's pro results training program, took my free lesson and found out my trainer sucked. I looked at the fine print on the contract, I had 7 gym business days after signing, which it turns out include weekends, to either send a letter to their headquarters, or send a telegram to their headquarters saying I want out. Since it took me a few days to decide this, I had to Fedex my written letter 2 day express to get it there in time.
The ridiculous part is when the trainer called me up and said I "shouldn't have done that" and that he could just cancel me over the phone, despite the fact that the contract was quite explicit about mail and telegram (really telegram?) being the only two ways to cancel. I'd switch but it seems most gyms are run like 2 bit scams.
Re: Gym price discrimination
#7Why not? Buyers can be getting a huge range of results (from temporarily assuaging guilt to changing their lifestyle to finding a new set of friends they can hang out with every day). If you're selling something that could mean so much to so many different customers, there's no excuse not to charge them intelligently for it.
Re: Gym price discrimination
#8A big chunk of the people who join gyms stop going after a month or two. Gym equipment is also really expensive. I'd be surprised if the average gym could stay in business very long if infrequent exercisers weren't subsidizing more regular gym-goers via long-term membership contracts.
Which also explains the lame high-pressure sales act. When you walk in the door, they already know there's a good chance they'll be taking your money for a service you'll barely ever use. You avoid being this kind of rube by being somebody who will derive enormous benefit the gym instead, in which case manipulating you into joining is for your own good.
Re: Gym price discrimination
#9Gyms make all their money from people who never go - that's why they all have 12month contracts and sell 90% of them in January
My local gym does per visit, 10 visit, 1, 3 and 12month with increasing discount - but it's city owned = socialism eh?
Re: Gym price discrimination
#10Gyms make all their money from people who never go - that's why they all have 12month contracts and sell 90% of them in January My local gym does per visit, 10 visit, 1, 3 and 12month with increasing discount - but it's city owned = socialism eh?
I would assume that their profit equation works something like this: they need enough capacity to ensure that during the peak season, nobody is unhappy. If 90% of their contracts are in January, then that peak is huge, so they can't really skimp, even if most of those people never come back. If, e.g., 90% of signups were on the 1st of the month, it would be a lot easier: the peak occupancy would be much lower.