How Gyms Make Money (2015)
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How Gyms Make Money (2015)
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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#2There’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.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#3There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal.
Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#4There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal. Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
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Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#5Agree with the general economics, but this caught my eye:
> a gym customer needs quite a bit more space compared to the retail customers in the rest of the high street
Where I live, the two gyms nearest to me are not on a high street - they are effectively in residential areas, which I believe has lower rents. The gyms that are on the high street are 'super gyms' that are significantly more expensive.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#6There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal. Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
I think that most people simply don't read contracts before signing them. They go by what the sales pitch says, and sales pitches are almost never honest and complete.
> why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
There are, at least in my part of the country, a lot of gyms that don't behave this way -- but you have to actually read the contract to know if that's the sort of gym you're in.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#7There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal. Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
Popularity is an anti feature at the gym. Working adults have limited windows to workout and so once a gym gets affordable like 24hr fitness where seasonal sales at Costco make it VERY cheap it becomes a gym you might not actually want to work out in.
Then you have the whole gym owner archetype which I won’t dive into but IMO exasperates the issue.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#8There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal. Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
Probably because gym density isn't super high in some areas, so consumers may not have a ton of choices. And opening a gym that can compete with a big gym chain is not as easy as opening a sandwich shop to compete with subway.
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#9There’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.
Ryan Hamilton's comedy bit about canceling gym contracts is hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnKJiixfa00
Re: How Gyms Make Money (2015)
#10There’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.
It’s bizarre that consumers collectively agree to these terms. If I started a business that was this anti-customer, I would assume there would be zero customers willing to take that deal. Moreover, why hasn’t anyone introduced a brand that doesn’t have all these awful features?
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