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This reminds me of my ex gym. About a year ago they put counters on all the machines. After some time they decided most of the machines were not used often enou

This reminds me of my ex gym. About a year ago they put counters on all the machines. After some time they decided most of the machines were not used often enough and should be removed to expand the free weight section (which was comapritavely busy). What the didn't account for was the free weight section was essentially busy with the same set of people who spend all their time at the gym for heavy training. Myself and quite few others who come by themselves to the gym more infrequently andwere using the machines (you need a spotter for the same exercises on the free weights). Now both groups paid the same for membership, but they essentially removed the ability for one group to train, needless to say I moved to a different gym. By blindly following the data they optised for worse customers (you want people to subscribe but not show up often).

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> By blindly following the data they optised for worse customers (you want people to subscribe but not show up often). There are other considerations. If it costs a lot more to have someone using the machines than to have someone using the free weights, you might be better off with just the free-weight crowd than you are also having the intermittent machine guys. You want customers that are profitable, which isn't the same thing as customers that only rarely show up.
- darkwater 5y ago
  Err... what? Gyms literally live off the customers that just go once in a month or directly never show up. They are dimensioned taking this into account, and they charge factoring this in. If 100% of the customers were body-builders using free weights, they would have to charge them at very least 2x.
  - makeitdouble 5y ago
    My take is that the gym changed course, and instead of having half ghost customers who only reluctantly pay, they choose to go for heavy users who will take space, but also book coaching sessions, buy products and are more than willing to put the money on the table. If it's really what happened I'd see that as a pretty great move.
  - the-alt-one 5y ago
    >were body-builders using free weights, they would have to charge them at very least 2x. At same spaces, yes! Good quality barbells and weights, while expensive, keep for over 30 years. Bodybuilding and powerlifting doesn't take much space, so you don't need a large space, and the customer base is dedicated and can often tolerate their gyms being a bit out of the way. Machines, however, like to break and are incredibly expensive compared to barbells and weights.
- snovv_crash 5y ago
  It isn't about the customers never showing up, it is the machines taking up space on the floor, unused 90% of the time, which stops more of the free-weight crowd from joining because the gym is too crowded. When people want to join a gym they ask the fit guy which gym they recommend. It's a bit like techies recommending thinkpads or macbooks which gave those respective products massive boosts.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> By blindly following the data they optised for worse customers (you want people to subscribe but not show up often). There are other considerations. If it costs a lot more to have someone using the machines than to have someone using the free weights, you might be better off with just the free-weight crowd than you are also having the intermittent machine guys. You want customers that are profitable, which isn't the same thing as customers that only rarely show up.

darkwater 5y ago
Err... what? Gyms literally live off the customers that just go once in a month or directly never show up. They are dimensioned taking this into account, and they charge factoring this in. If 100% of the customers were body-builders using free weights, they would have to charge them at very least 2x.
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  My take is that the gym changed course, and instead of having half ghost customers who only reluctantly pay, they choose to go for heavy users who will take space, but also book coaching sessions, buy products and are more than willing to put the money on the table. If it's really what happened I'd see that as a pretty great move.
- the-alt-one 5y ago
  >were body-builders using free weights, they would have to charge them at very least 2x. At same spaces, yes! Good quality barbells and weights, while expensive, keep for over 30 years. Bodybuilding and powerlifting doesn't take much space, so you don't need a large space, and the customer base is dedicated and can often tolerate their gyms being a bit out of the way. Machines, however, like to break and are incredibly expensive compared to barbells and weights.
snovv_crash 5y ago
It isn't about the customers never showing up, it is the machines taking up space on the floor, unused 90% of the time, which stops more of the free-weight crowd from joining because the gym is too crowded. When people want to join a gym they ask the fit guy which gym they recommend. It's a bit like techies recommending thinkpads or macbooks which gave those respective products massive boosts.