If Planet Fitness eased back on their goofy policies, would they get more members?

Kforcer

Kforcer

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So I guess these guys are the most successful gym chain in America, as everyone knows. But, they are also America's most disliked gym due to their various annoying policies and slogans.

I have a hypothetical scenario: Planet Fitness continues to market itself as it always has (denigrating people that are either in great shape, enthusiastic about working out or some combination of both), but quietly adds heavier dumbbells, bench presses, squat racks, etc., and retires the so-called lunk alarm.

What happens? Do they lose their base or do even more people start flocking there?
 
Jkillah said:
They don't want serious people to lift there. They are banking on people stopping going regularly but not bothering to cancel because their membership is so cheap.
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Yeah, good point. A lot of gyms are that way, even the legit ones. A guy who worked at a gym and went to a lot of conventions for gym owners was telling me that the hardcore people were the ones that were the worst for the gyms financially because they were roughest on the equipment, often worked out alone, didn't pay for training and generally didn't buy things at the gym.

It was funny, he was almost insulting me, because I felt like I actually fit into the category which he said was the worst for the gym. And at the same time, if he didn't think I fit into that category, I'd also take that as an insult.
 
Jkillah said:
They don't want serious people to lift there. They are banking on people stopping going regularly but not bothering to cancel because their membership is so cheap.
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First impressions are huge. PFs are bright, new, shiney, clean, and the clientele isn't intimidating so they can get normies in the door and sign them up.......plus free pizza every month! What you said about people forgetting about their membership or going intermittently while still paying their dues is so true. Pretty good business model.
 
Their niche is the ppl who cater to their policies

As with any business: when you market to everyone, you market to no one.

They'd be no different than any 24h big box gym, except they would have less equipment than them, so whats going to pull ppl to their banner?
 
j123 said:
Their niche is the ppl who cater to their policies

As with any business: when you market to everyone, you market to no one.

They'd be no different than any 24h big box gym, except they would have less equipment than them, so whats going to pull ppl to their banner?
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I'm just thinking, what if they just quietly added legit equipment, ditched the lunk alarm but didn't really broadcast it? Still kept up the same propaganda but just silently made the gyms better places to workout...? Do enough of the people who really buy into their rhetoric and feel comforted by their assurances of a "Judgment Free Zone" even know enough about gym equipment to notice the difference if squats and benches are added?

You guys make a good point though. They are what they are for a reason.
 
This gym appeals to the clueless who want to remain clueless. This gym was a representation of 'post truth' before it became fashionable circa 2015.

I actually worked here as a trainer in the early 2000s for a few weeks. If I worked there any longer I'd have blown my brains.
 
It’s $10 a month. They don’t actually want people to consistently workout or the gym would be way too overcrowded.
I’d they were to be a regular gym why would they charge only $10?
 
biscuitsbrah said:
It’s $10 a month. They don’t actually want people to consistently workout or the gym would be way too overcrowded.
I’d they were to be a regular gym why would they charge only $10?
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Crunch Fitness is around 10 bucks a month. They are trying to come to prominence as sort of the anti-Planet Fitness, it seems like.
 
DEVILsSON said:
This gym appeals to the clueless who want to remain clueless. This gym was a representation of 'post truth' before it became fashionable circa 2015.

I actually worked here as a trainer in the early 2000s for a few weeks. If I worked there any longer I'd have blown my brains.
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Fuck that place.
 
I pay $16 a month for a gym with serious lifters and drive 12 miles one way from home to get there. There's a Planet fitness one mile from my house. I refuse to join.

They would have to go through a serious makeover for me to ever consider it either, doing a minimum of what you propose.
 
TeTe said:
Don't they serve pizza on Tuesdays or some shit too?
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Yeah, they have a pizza day for sure. And they give you tootsie rolls, I believe, as you come in.
 
Kforcer said:
Hahahahaha...I honestly don't know if you are kidding or not, because it is the same gym that bans carrying water bottles around.
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That's a genius business model

Ban water bottles from pateons. Force ppl to buy their 3-5x markup water

TerryMCLOOPS said:
Do burpees in their parking lot they'll call the police
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Lol when I first heard about PF I thought it was just lifting. Then turns out some fitness chick who pushed the pace for HIIT got the alarm called on them

Planet fitness = planet gulag
 
I read that Planet Fitness locations don't have barbell racks or cages, only Smith machines. And their heaviest dumbbells are 60 lbs.

That is just silly. I get that their market is entry-level fitness, but come on. There are senior citizens who need better equipment than that.
 
j123 said:
Planet fitness = planet gulag
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Oh, for sure. Planet Fitness is like a hardcore communist gym minus the ruthless desire to win every Olympics at all cost.
 
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