Why is gym membership so expensive?

hollydays

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Ha, no (since she's an abhorrent media-produced devils advocate) and i'm not suggesting people with more money are any better or nicer - but a steep monthly cost does keep the riff-raff out. I'm glad we got mates-rates membership!

Oh dear...........clearly... It doesn't...

dodger1

arcon5 wrote: »

I thought it was obvious from my post - obviously not so fair enough.

Probably is, the want for a gym though is down to convenience and space. Just surprised at the cost of it all.

I wonder if I go in to one of them how far I can push to price down before they send me packing

See if you have "Active Nation" in your area. Their gym in my area is pretty cheap. Just keep an I out for special offers, mine was recently £214 for a full year, that's for the gym, the pool, all classes and car parking,

http://www.activenation.org.uk/

paddyrg

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

What? Do you have quotes for all of this?

Yes, it's typically thousands, not tens or hundreds of thousands as excesses are high and contracts limit liability where they can. Maintenance is frequently on contract as a part of the lease agreements, so is a known cost and subject to initial negotiation.

OlliesDad

The pricing at gyms is a bit of a balancing act. Price it too low and you end up with too many customers, resulting in customers unhappy at waiting to use machines or increasing capacity by buying more machines (however there is a limit on how many machines you can get in one space). On the other hand, price it too high and you get no customers.

It seems that the market has decided that the current pricing is the optimal level.

[Deleted User]

I used to run a gym and it annoys me when people think that they make lots of money. Mine was a small independent gym with about 400 members. My staffing costs were about £4k per month (2 staff, 7am to 10pm seven days a week), rent £2k. rates £1k, payment on the equipment £3k (commercial gym equipment is VERY expensive), had a business loan to repay, then there were all the utilities - water rates were high, electricity was nearly £1k per month, insurance, music licences etc. We even had to pay to have our rubbish taken away! We had a lift, that had to have a maintenance contract and various engineering certificates etc, we had a health and safety consultant, fire extinguishers, portable appliances. fire alarms, door locks etc all had to be regularly tested. Computer systems to be maintained and updated, maintenance on the fabric of the building etc. Then there was VAT - we immediately lost 20% of all our income to HMRC. In the end we simply couldn't make enough money - people wanted to pay less and less but expected more in return. We had to close our doors

redfragglebiker

I don't think the price I pay is too bad. £20 per month but that includes all fitness classes and swimming plus the use of the gym. They also havea sauna & steam room which you can only use as a member You also get heavily discounted rates for court hire. They do also offer to freeze your memebership for up to 3 months in any given year for certain circumstances (so if I broke my leg or something I could freeze three months and then carry on paying when I was healed)
For the amount I go (3-4 times per week) I actually think I get a pretty good deal! I know I could run etc outside but where I live is very hilly and I have had knee issues in the past which makes me a bit wary. This way I can decide what I want to do depending on if I am having a bad or good knee day.

Pennywise

One of my clients is a gym, and I know for a fact that it's not a high money generating business. It makes a reasonable profit on average, but they're certainly not into millionaire territory!

The OP compared it with restaurants, but there's no comparison. A typical gym is open 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, 363 days a year. For every single hour of that time, it's consuming power and staff have to be paid. My client's power bill is far higher than an average sized industrial unit - swimming pools are hungry as is the lighting, heating, air con, and the power for the machines. A restaurant will only be fully staffed for a few hours a day, and fewer opening hours leads onto less power for heating/lighting etc. They need high quality equipment - a typical Argos £200 treadmill wouldn't last a week, and they need several of each type of equipment to keep the punters happy - the leases and service contracts easily run to tens of thousands of pounds every month.

As said above, there's all the back office work that you'll never see, such as admin systems & staff, H&S, insurance, fire/security systems, the list is almost endless.

Bantex_2

arcon5 wrote: »

And just in case you missed my post... I want a running machine and the use of a pool up to twice a week local to me.

Why not just run to the local council swimming pool, have a swin and run home again?

Sorted.

Bantex_2

aqua111 wrote: »

Are the only "right kind" of clientele those with plenty of money¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

That is usually the case, unless you like chavs that is.

Alias_Omega

Local Gym to Me - Pure Gym... £12.99 per month. No contract. No joining fee.

Used it for 1 month whilst on leave post deployment. Then cancelled.