FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

How did it even evolve into such a mess?

Cannot you just go to random gym, pay for enterance and do ya thing without signing stuff?

The gym I belong to requires both a credit card and bank routing and transfer numbers, on top of like 13 different legal documents. It is the only one I can afford within 10 minutes of my house.

Sometimes you can but you better be guaranteed you’ll be exposed to high pressure sales tactics that make it not worth it, similar to how timeshare presentations offer “free” stuff

Gyms largely make money from people having memberships but never actually going.

There's only a few types of gyms where most of the members actually use the gym, and although they're still subscription based, they have entirely different business models.

Gyms making you jump through hoops to cancel your contract is a feature, not a bug.

There are plenty of subscription based gyms that have high utilization and also make it easy to cancel. They’re just usually more expensive (e.g. $200 per month instead of $20 like 24 Hour Fitness).

A friend of mine worked in sales for a big national gym. Not understanding their business model, he proposed a program that would generate some excitement among the membership and bring many of them in daily to participate. It didn't get shot down, it just didn't get any interest at all. When I explained it his eyes went wide, like it was a new idea to him. This strategy doesn't seem to be widely shared even with their own sales force.

He left and is now working for a company that actually wants its customers to use its product more.

Planet Fitness is diabolical with this.

"Pizza Fridays!"

"Judgement free zone!"

"No lunks in here! Lunk alarm!"

They know the demographic they are shooting for.

I'm a regular at one of those pricy gyms, and I think you're spot on. There's high utilization, and the gym actually bugs you if you haven't shown up to class in a while. The high price probably leads to a degree of self-selection among members, and the class-centric nature of the gym (as opposed to just being a floor full of equipment) probably means there's business value to people being there.

Often no.

Most gyms I've been to do not allow local residents to purchase 1-day passes.

They do often allow people visiting (on business etc.) to purchase a daily or weekly pass. But may need your ID to prove that, and you can only do that so many times. Like if you visit for two weeks once a year they're happy to. If you come once a month for business, you're gonna need a full membership.

And you've always gotta sign stuff no matter what. For liability, so they know who to contact if you keel over on the treadmill, and so forth.

I'm a rather happy customer of Planet Fitness and a regular user. It's pretty clear what their business plan is, but the gym itself is fine, obviously with no frills. The most obvious deficiency is that they only have smith machines and no barbells, but that's not much of an issue for me. The strangest aspect is that there are no scales in the locker room; I assume that's a purposeful part of the atmosphere. Still I recommend them to all my friends. If they don't go, I suppose they're still subsidizing my membership.

I'm a member as well. I get way more value than what I pay for, but I feel bad for the people at home subsidizing me.

Depends on the gym. Some do not allow it at all unless you sign up for some type of membership - or they tell you to do a free trial, take your billing info, and hope you forget to cancel.

The alternative I've commonly seen is they do offer a day pass, but it's basically the cost of an entire month to go even one time, while also making it extremely inconvenient by having to sign a bunch of forms every single time you go. This makes it so nobody except maybe a tourist/non-local would ever consider this option.

The gym needs to have a bar making and selling overpriced "health drinks", and also a store selling overpriced merchandise; then getting more people into the gym would actually be profitable.

Wtf? Thats crazy

In eastern eu I just enter the gym and purchase daily or monthly ticket

Just like train ticket