I am fairly athletic and do cardio and strength exercises since I was in a school (60+ now). I do it without gym though For cardio I bike, hike, swim in open water etc. For strength I do some bodyweight stuff that does not take up much time at all. I also have rowing machine and treadmill that I use in winter time. Thought of visiting gym had never even occurred to me.
How Gyms Make Money (2015)
91–100 of 229 posts
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#92There’s also tricks like requiring certified letters to cancel the membership. One I went to required two. You also paid a fee upfront that was like being there for half a year.
I once forged an offer letter to get out of my Equinox membership, the requirements are ridiculous
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#93I've been a gym rat for almost 20 years now, and I'm probably the worst customer for gyms. I only workout at 24*7 gyms and being an early bird I get there at 430 and I have pretty much the whole gym for myself. I am there 6 days a week and I always shower at the gym. Further, I use the corporate discounts available to join the memberships. With all that, it comes down to approx. $50 a month for membership and I used…
>I'm probably the worst customer for gyms [...] I get there at 430 no that's the best customer for gyms. The ACTUAL way gyms make money is by heavily over subscribing a fixed amount of resources (machines/benches/space). You finding some random time to go to the gym instead of just canceling has barely any marginal cost over some one just not going and you'll talk positively about having a membership.
How is that the best? To me the best custumer never even visits the gym, buys everything that is offered, and gives the business donations.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I'm probably the worst customer for gyms [...] I get there at 430 no that's the best customer for gyms. The ACTUAL way gyms make money is by heavily over subscribing a fixed amount of resources (machines/benches/space). You finding some random time to go to the gym instead of just canceling has barely any marginal cost over some one just not going and you'll talk positively about having a membership.
Hmmm, not sure how much a customer taking a hot shower costs a gym.
Probably about 6 cents. Assuming a 30 minute shower with a 2.5 gpm flow rate and 110F average temperature. Maybe less if they have a more efficient water heater than resistive electric at ~11 cents per kwh.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#95I use Healthways. I pay $50 a month and I can go to almost any gym. One of the gyms that I used to go to all the time before I moved stopped excepting Healthways when they had a reorganization during the pandemic. My friend who works there thinks it's because it didn't make economic sense since too many of their members were using Healthways. Those people now have to spend $150 a month to go to that gym. And they may continue to pay for Healthways as well.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#96There’s also tricks like requiring certified letters to cancel the membership. One I went to required two. You also paid a fee upfront that was like being there for half a year.
Just recently dealt with this. Gym would not respond to emails asking for cancellation form, nor pick up the phone during office hours. Then stood by their cancellation policy of 30 days despite the weeks of messages left. 30 days from time of signing the form. Shady business.
Had you tried going in physically and demanding a form?
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#97I use Healthways. I pay $50 a month and I can go to almost any gym. One of the gyms that I used to go to all the time before I moved stopped excepting Healthways when they had a reorganization during the pandemic. My friend who works there thinks it's because it didn't make economic sense since too many of their members were using Healthways. Those people now have to spend $150 a month to go to that gym. And they may…
I’m googling around and not finding much about Healthways. How do you get access to it?
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't read the article but the move to squeezy ketchup bottles was because parents didn't like kids messing with the glass bottles, and kids were the ones who would dump a load of unused ketchup on their plates meaning parents would buy more.
The squeezy bottles are annoying because they are opaque and I'm sure a ton of wasted mustard, ketchup etc are being thrown in the trash compared to glass. The Dutch have the flessenlikker but most Americans don't.
I’ve learned a lot from the comments on this site, but the existence of the flessenlikker may be the most valuable tidbit I’ve found here.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmmm, not sure how much a customer taking a hot shower costs a gym.
Probably about 6 cents. Assuming a 30 minute shower with a 2.5 gpm flow rate and 110F average temperature. Maybe less if they have a more efficient water heater than resistive electric at ~11 cents per kwh.
Don’t forget that showers are expensive to build and maintain. I would guess that the amount of labor that goes into keeping the showers clean and running is far higher than electricity costs.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#100Any gym owners can chime in? My local gym seemed pretty normal this January so far (but I am in Australia where many people book their holidays during forced shutdown periods). Also the gym seems to have the same pricing whenever except sometimes there is “no joining fee” which is a weird thing to me but hey? My gym is independent. A famous world brand of gym I used to belong to seemed to make their money by making i…
Alan Thrall (owner of Untamed Strength in Sacramento) has discussed this a few times (most recently in this video[0]), but basically independent gyms don't really see this effect. In fact January can still be a pretty slow month for independent gyms as members over spend during the holidays (and cancel memberships) or don't want to go out in the cold weather. Personally as a member of an independent gym for a few yea…
> or don't want to go out in the cold weather
January in Australia is Summer