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How Gyms Make Money (2015)

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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#191

Post by creer »

nomilk wrote: post #75
opportune wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m happy for you, but this is kind of phrased a little overly smugly to me. As someone who lifts weights, it sounds like “I don’t go to the grocery, I just eat potatoes and eggs from my backyard farm”. It’s certainly something you can do and get good results, but it’s also a limitation. If you want to build muscle or strength past a certain point it will be very inefficient not to use free weights. Maybe you don’t w…

It's more relief than smugness. Gyms always seemed to let me down: onerous contracts, complex or buggy booking platforms/procedures, unhygienic, stuffy, rigid class start times and open hours. Gaining self-sufficiency made me incredibly happy/relieved. The final straw was when I wanted to pause the membership the gym required "supporting documentation" (i.e. flight or hotel itinerary). I cringed so hard. When I cance…

No need to go half way: It IS sleazy. The gym utility should be mental: encouraging you to go. But it's the incentive again: the gym owner feels they must squeeze money from any patron they get - and that includes not encouraging them to come. Making the gym more like home and a welcoming place means fewer memberships can be sold. Bad incentives all around.

And so for me the answer has been to work out at home. Finding a routine that requires little equipment and doing THAT right.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#192

Post by cafard »

dgfitz wrote: post #107
hattmall wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To make light of the comment: what the hell does someone need to take a 30m shower for?

Many years ago, at the end of a fifty mile race, I collected my bag and went to the locker room. When I got in, I guy was leaning against the wall, with the showerhead kind of over his shoulder (this was a junior high school). I undressed very slowly, for I was quite sore from the run. I took what I thought was a long shower, and then dressed very slowly and packed my stuff the same way. As I left the locker room, the guy was still leaning against the wall with water running over him. I didn't blame him.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#193

Post by browningstreet »

al_borland wrote: post #171
Gigachad wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay as you go in general is not popular. It creates an incentive to not use the product or service and makes people feel bad about using it. Meanwhile upfront payments make you feel good about using the service. You already paid for it, using it is getting your monies worth. And if you can’t build a habit around using their service, you won’t stay a customer for long. The ideal customer is someone who pays but doesn’…

I think the Planet Fitness model is to appeal to non-gym-goers, and to also be cheap enough where people carry the membership year to year, because it’s not a big enough charge to hurt, while making the customer feel like they have some good intentions by having the membership.

People love to bag on Planet Fitness. I suppose they brought it on themselves, but things have moved on. I have multiple gym memberships: one to a world renowned powerlifting gym, another to an athletic training facility popular with professional athletes, and my local planet fitness. I have that because it’s closest to my son’s mother’s house (we meet there a couple of times per week) and it’s my “travel gym membership” since 24 Hour Fitness closed in our town.

All that lead up to say: the numerous PFs I visit are regularly busy and people work out there quite regularly. I see a lot of familiar faces at each of the locations. Their clientele is no worse or less dedicated than those of the other gyms.

Also, having visited their gyms in a number of coastal metro cities I’ll say that they do a really great job of maintaining their equipment.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#194

Post by HPMOR »

cafard wrote: post #192
dgfitz wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To make light of the comment: what the hell does someone need to take a 30m shower for?

Many years ago, at the end of a fifty mile race, I collected my bag and went to the locker room. When I got in, I guy was leaning against the wall, with the showerhead kind of over his shoulder (this was a junior high school). I undressed very slowly, for I was quite sore from the run. I took what I thought was a long shower, and then dressed very slowly and packed my stuff the same way. As I left the locker room, th…

You ran 50 miles in middle school??!!?

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#195

Post by silverlake »

klipt wrote: post #41
Avshalom wrote: post #33

Earlier 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.

I guess the most economically efficient model would be for gyms to charge per use with surge pricing. 4-5am? $2. 5-6pm? $10!

My gym charged a cheaper rate for swimming from 10am to 3pm. I swam on my lunch break and saved a bunch of money.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#197

Post by dgfitz »

jack_pp wrote: post #136
grecy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I personally don't understand the people who wouldn't want to take a 30 minute shower. Are you aware that clean water is a finite resource that we're almost certain to run out of? [1] does that not bother you all? Even mighty British Columbia with all the rivers, lakes, mountains and snowfall is under drought conditions, right now in winter! https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state...

What do you mean it's a finite resource, I take a shower with some water, it gets dumped, cleaned then I can use it again. Does me taking a longer shower just disintegrate the water?

GP did not consider septic tanks either apparently

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#198

Post by truculent »

illnewsthat wrote: post #117

> Usually about 75 per cent of all gym memberships are taken out in the month of January. That's a pretty wild claim to include without a source... I googled it and found a source that said 12% of signups in January compared to average 8% the rest of the year which sounds a lot more realistic. [1] [1] https://www.ihrsa.org/improve-your-club/how-to-keep-resoluti...

Could it mean 75% of a given year’s memberships are active in January? Probably an overly generous interpretation…

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#199

Post by al_borland »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #2

There’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.

One I went to required you quit in person, which I had experienced before, but then the guy running it asked if we could talk about why I was quitting, since it was his first day taking over and he didn't want to lose anyone the first day. I was there for 3 hours talking to him and his buddy that got him into fitness. I ended up agreeing to 3 month free and a personal training session with him just to get out of there. I did the training session, it was very bad, and then went back again later to quit when he wasn't there.

Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)

#200

Post by al_borland »

browningstreet wrote: post #193
al_borland wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the Planet Fitness model is to appeal to non-gym-goers, and to also be cheap enough where people carry the membership year to year, because it’s not a big enough charge to hurt, while making the customer feel like they have some good intentions by having the membership.

People love to bag on Planet Fitness. I suppose they brought it on themselves, but things have moved on. I have multiple gym memberships: one to a world renowned powerlifting gym, another to an athletic training facility popular with professional athletes, and my local planet fitness. I have that because it’s closest to my son’s mother’s house (we meet there a couple of times per week) and it’s my “travel gym members…

I'd be curious to see the numbers on Planet Fitness. At $10/month, what is their percentage of members who regularly show vs never showing up. $10/month is easy to forget about, like a steaming service. A gym charging $50 or $100+/month is harder to ignore and I assume would have a higher percentage of members actually showing up. Not because people who pay more will be more likely to turn into gym rats, but because there would be fewer people brushing off the monthly charge as a rounding error in their budget over time.

I've been to a Planet Fitness once as a guest of someone while on vacation. It as well kept, I was able to find some equipment for a good workout, and it was pretty crowded (in August), and I'm sure there are a lot of regulars. The question is, what percentage of the overall membership are those regulars?

I'm not sure if they still do the pizza thing, but that always struck me as odd and what gave them a bad image in my book. I never wanted to be a member of a gym that appeared to be sabotaging its members. It makes it seem like the gym isn't invested in the success of its members. I felt the same way about the dentist giving me candy after a cleaning when I was a kid.

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