[quote]thrasher wrote:
He said they were offering a deal, $900 for 3 years and $30 a month.[/quote]
I would pay $900 for 3 years or I would pay $30 a month as either of those is cheaper than my current gym, but I wouldnt pay both.
[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
A gym should charge whatever will maximize their profits. Does this piss you off? Get a membership somewhere else. Getting mad because they charge a certain price is silly.[/quote]
Amen
[quote]travis7 wrote:
cap’nsalty wrote:
A gym should charge whatever will maximize their profits. Does this piss you off? Get a membership somewhere else. Getting mad because they charge a certain price is silly.
Amen[/quote]
I think the OP’s point was more that the manager was a dumbass. And, if you think about it, the owner wasn’t “maximizing his profits” as he’s now made no gain whatsoever.
existing profit + 600/year = 600 profit
existing profit + 600/yr + 150startup - 1 lost customer (valued at 750) = existing profit
By not waiving the 150 he lost the 600. Unless memberships at this gym are in limited supply it seems like it would have been more profitable to waive the startup fee.
And it’s hardly fair to call him a cheap bastard, he has every right to decide what he thinks is a fair price for something. If the asking price is higher than what he thinks is fair he’s got a right to not purchase it. These are some of the most basic tenets of capitalism. And frankly, unless you’re intimately acquainted with the OP’s personal finances, I don’t see how you’re qualified to make a distinction as to what’s cheap for him.
Jay
Thank you modder, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Anyone with a basic understanding of economics will understand this. There is essentially unlimited resources in the gym, and the gym runs on a fixed cost basis. It doesn’t cost them any extra for me to work out there.
the gym that I go to cost’s $200 a year total…
plus, it’s got better equipment than any gym in the greater seattle area…
that gym sounds like it sucks ass…
[quote]Playboy wrote:
There is essentially unlimited resources in the gym, and the gym runs on a fixed cost basis. It doesn’t cost them any extra for me to work out there. [/quote]
This is incorrect. Managing gyms, you do cost the club to work out there. The more hardcore of the lifter, the more you cost the gym as in wear and tear of the facility.
This being said, when I managed clubs, I would have definitely waived the enrollment fee to get a new member. In the managers defense, he may not have had the ability to waive the fee or do anything in that regard.
I find it weird that the better the gym (from my personal experience) the cheaper it is.
I went to a Bally’s and my wife and I had to pay a joining fee of over $100 (don’t remember exactly but I think it was $150) and a monthly fee of $70 ($35 each), then we moved and started going to a Powerhouse gym where we payed $35 per mont with no joining fee.
I now found a GREAT powerlifting gym where I can pay less than $12/MONTH if I join for a year!
It’s in Albany, NY and it’s called Albany Strength. I’m joining as soon as I move to Albany.
Better equipment, loud music, powerlifters, AND it’s cheaper!
[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
Playboy wrote:
There is essentially unlimited resources in the gym, and the gym runs on a fixed cost basis. It doesn’t cost them any extra for me to work out there.
This is incorrect. Managing gyms, you do cost the club to work out there. The more hardcore of the lifter, the more you cost the gym as in wear and tear of the facility.
This being said, when I managed clubs, I would have definitely waived the enrollment fee to get a new member. In the managers defense, he may not have had the ability to waive the fee or do anything in that regard. [/quote]
Good point, but how much can 1 guy really cost the gym, even counting water and electricity?
You have those bills, plus any rent and new equipment that gets bought rarely, although it is expensive.
I wonder if anyone figgured this out. I’d assume someone did, and if so, I’d hope the sales people know this figure so they know for sure how low they can go.
what percentage of the sign up fee does the salesman get?
There are lots of good points here on the thread. Of course there is wear and tear on the equipment, but one person is only marginally responsible for that. I’m beginning to think this manager couldn’t have even waived the fee if he wanted to. He as extremely hard headed about it and he was either an idiot or he had his hands tied and couldn’t do anything about it. I even told him I was going to buy the tanning package too. So that is $70 a month they would have gotten, and now nothing just because of an enrollment fee.
I’m not sure exactly how their commissions are, but just the fact that they have salesmen should tell you that they will be trying to fuck you. The gyms I’ve been to that have reasonable rates don’t even have salesmen. They lay their prices out and many people sign up because the gym is good and inexpensive.
I just would wish these guys would actually be good salesmen too, probe a little bit before you start talking about shit I don’t care about. This guy takes me all the way over to the basketball courts and is showing me, before he realizes I have no interest in basketball. And nothing is worse than a fat manager saying “i must not have any goals then” because I didn’t want to sign up for personal training with a bunch of birdie builder trainers.
[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
A gym should charge whatever will maximize their profits. Does this piss you off? Get a membership somewhere else. Getting mad because they charge a certain price is silly.[/quote]
I don’t get why this is so hard to understand. A gym is one of the hardest businesses to keep afloat, next to restaurants. Its a matter of simple economics, and by you not paying the enrollment fee, their profit is squeezed much tighter and in reality they probably are not making much, if anything by having you work out there.
There is a reason that they have the enrollment fee, and while I agree there is a time and a place for haggling, I don’t think a gym is one of those places.
he may have thought that you were being a pain before you joined that you’d be a pain after you joined and it wasn’t worth his frustration.
[quote]TDog305 wrote:
cap’nsalty wrote:
A gym should charge whatever will maximize their profits. Does this piss you off? Get a membership somewhere else. Getting mad because they charge a certain price is silly.
I don’t get why this is so hard to understand. A gym is one of the hardest businesses to keep afloat, next to restaurants. Its a matter of simple economics, and by you not paying the enrollment fee, their profit is squeezed much tighter and in reality they probably are not making much, if anything by having you work out there.
There is a reason that they have the enrollment fee, and while I agree there is a time and a place for haggling, I don’t think a gym is one of those places.[/quote]
Go back and read my earlier post on the subject. By not waiving the fee the manager ended up losing the sale and hence the 600 dollars a year in dues that go with it. So, no, his profits are not squeezed by waiving the fee if it in turn brings in a membership gaining him 600 dollars a year. By refusing to waive the fee, for whatever reason, he ends up not making any profit whatsoever. The economics of it are more like that of a service than a good. If we were talking about TVs (or widgets as the classic example goes) that would be one thing as the salesman could maxmize profits by selling the same widget to another person for the full price. However, in a service based industry where there’s really no physical product, like a membership, the benefit of a sale at a reduced price almost always outweighs the loss in profit due to that price reduction because you can always sell another unit of service. You’ll never run out of “stock”.
Plus, look at all the bad PR this gym has gotten. This thread alone has been viewed over 700 times. Add into that the fact that the OP will probably tell friends and co-workers this story and they will choose another gym, and tell other people they know, etc… Whereas look at the other option, the manager waives the enrollment fee and get’s a new member, boom, right there he’s made 600 bucks for the year. Now this new member is happy, he’s found a new gym and gotten a deal on it. So he tells his friends and relatives who may also go to the gym hoping to get a deal. Even if he doesn’t waive any more enrollment fees, he’s drawn people into his gym to look at it, that’s half the battle of business right there. Hell, maybe this new member happens to have a lot of fitness minded friends all looking for a new gym, he may have stirred up enough new business that the gym no longer needs to charge an enrollment fee.
I’m not saying the gym doesn’t have a right to charge what they see fit for memberships, I’m just saying that from an economic standpoint, getting a member to join by waiving the enrollment fee is better than not getting the member at all.
cheers,
Jay
In my business experience everyone wants stuff for free. Gyms cost money. The equipment is not cheap, the upkeep of a gym is not cheap, but people always act like every gym is a goldmine for the owners and get cheap.
You want a nice gym? Support it with your dollars. If it’s clean and well maintained you know the owners continually reinvest. So pay up, otherwise join a cheap, run down workout mill with rusty freeweights that may close it’s doors on you after taking your money.
BTW: if rusty freeweights are your thing, more power to ya.
[quote]Gregus wrote:
You want a nice gym?
[/quote]
nope…
I want a gym where I can squat, bench, deadlift, and military press without some pansy ‘personal trainer’ with a neck slimmer than a stack of dimes telling me what I’m doing is dangerous…
a gym with a deadlift platform and chalk bowl…
a gym with a GHR and reverse hyper machine instead of some stupid fucking beach balls…
a gym that plays loud aggressive music, not some effeminate candy-ass shit from the local easy-listening radio station…
a gym with an owner that used to be a competitive old-style powerlifter…
today’s modern spic’n’span “fitness palaces” are no place for anyone that’s even remotely serious about lifting weights…
Your first mistake was going to sign up on the first of the month. Most sales staff have quotas- monthly ones. If you would have gone a day earlier that guy would have dropped his pants for you.
I worked at a gym until recently. I hated it there. They were making PLENTY of profit. I know this because it was a small chain and I knew the owner personally. I was also in management for a short time, so I knew what they’re numbers looked like.
The membership salesmen RAISED the start-up fee to $199 from $99 because they knew it would sound like a deal if they then dropped to $99 or $49. The equipment was not well maintained, and the facility was not kept all that clean. The average joe who walked through the doors would think this gym was great, but to anybody who knows anything, it was a pile of shit.
The start-up fees at this gym were charged purely out of greed. It was a small facility and had over 4,000 paying members. Less than 25% of that actually worked out there.
Gyms are, for the most part, a shady business. You might be better off in this case, so you can search for a gym that has the right ideas about customer service, and charges a fair price.
Every gym I have worked at, the enrollment fee existed to be waived. By that I mean, the fee was always waivable and the sales people were informed to use it as a last resort, because it was baiscally free money. Knowing this, no part of me feels like a cheap ass for not paying it. If this gym didn’t follow such policies the salesman would not have dropped my enrollment fee and I would have gone somewhere else. All that would have happened had I not tried, would have been the gym gaining my money and me losing my money. Having tried, I saved $150, the gym gained a customer and all is well in the world.
All this crap about being a cheap ass for not wanting to pay the enrollment fee is just that, crap. Even without the knowledge of the way the system works, by definition we the people set the prices by our willingness to pay or not pay for the goods or services in question (this breaks down at our most basic needs, but the gy most certainly is not one of them). If we mindlessly paid the price as listed for evey item every time, well the prices would just keep on going up. Thankfully we do have some say, both by voicing our opinion and by the act of spending our dollar.
I offered to buy a Mercedes from a dealership for $5 more than what they paid for it. They turned my offer down even though they would have made a $5 profit. They’re morons because a profit is a profit, right playboy?
[quote]DPH wrote:
Gregus wrote:
You want a nice gym?
nope…
I want a gym where I can squat, bench, deadlift, and military press without some pansy ‘personal trainer’ with a neck slimmer than a stack of dimes telling me what I’m doing is dangerous…
a gym with a deadlift platform and chalk bowl…
a gym with a GHR and reverse hyper machine instead of some stupid fucking beach balls…
a gym that plays loud aggressive music, not some effeminate candy-ass shit from the local easy-listening radio station…
a gym with an owner that used to be a competitive old-style powerlifter…
today’s modern spic’n’span “fitness palaces” are no place for anyone that’s even remotely serious about lifting weights…[/quote]
I would disagree with you about that last part. Fitness comes in all types. Not everyone into fitness wants to be a hardcore lifter. Some very serious people get in great shape without “ghasp” deadlifts.
[quote]travis7 wrote:
I offered to buy a Mercedes from a dealership for $5 more than what they paid for it. They turned my offer down even though they would have made a $5 profit. They’re morons because a profit is a profit, right playboy?[/quote]
This is entirely irrelevant. The mercedes is a good with a limited supply. They can sell that specific car to someone else for a much larger profit, therefore it doesn’t make sense to sell it to you for $5 profit.
Gym memberships, however, are not at a premium and not in limited supply, at least in this case. It would be different if there was a waiting list to get into the gym and there was line of people behind you ready and willing to pay the enrollment fee for that 1 spot.
But seeing as how that’s not the case, the manager isn’t gaining anything extra by not waiving the enrollment fee. It’s not a limited supply good that he can sell to someone else for more profit. The laws of economics are different when there is a relatively unlimited supply.
Jay