All David Barton Gyms close overnight without warning

[nothuman]

So yesterday, many people were headed to DBG for a workout, only to find the gyms closed for good. No warning or anything. All they got was an email in the morning. Imagine buying a membership the week before?

Here is a copy of what Wynn posted in an old thread. Figured this needed a new thread. Was anyone here a member?

Almost 400 staffers lost jobs when David Barton Gyms abruptly closed across the city on Wednesday.

“All the staff and everyone just found out, right before the holidays,” a source told us Tuesday night. Another added, “They lost their health insurance.”

“Everyone is shocked,” said yet another.
Users of the Glam&Go salons at the Barton Astor Place and West Village locations got an e-mail at 12:58 a.m. Wednesday saying, “I’m sorry to e-mail this way. We have been informed . . . their facilities will be closed permanently, effective immediately. We wish we could have given more notice, and transition plan, but we are letting you know as soon as we find out.”

Reps told us 369 employees lost their jobs and that the abrupt closure was due to increasing rental costs and competition from other fitness venues.
Founder David Barton, who left the company in 2013, told us that he’s “sad,” and, “People are calling and showing up at my new gym, TMPL. I’m not quite sure what to do . . . But it’s the holidays. Come in and work out on me, for now. We’ll figure something out in 2017.”

David Barton Gym closure leaves almost 400 jobless | Page Six

 

[Archer]

Probably the release of booty max on tv

 

[bigNsmall]

Is that the weird shitlib gym with a DJ inside?

 

[Barny]

That is awesome of him to give free gym use through the end of the year to those affected.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

The Russians hacked the email

 

[Ashop]

The gym business is a very tough one. Too bad the employees didn't getting warning,,especially around the holidays.

 

[MightyJohn]

They stopped construction in Philly months back from what I understand too...& yes the gym business is rough, I was let go for budgetary reasons as a DM back in July, and I was hitting all My #'s, revenue goals

 

[maldorf]

Doing that crap should be illegal. We had that happen here in town to a Gold's Gym. They just closed their door without any warning. Nothing members could do to recover their loss. I bet though if you read the fine print of a gym membership that it has some sort of clause in legal terms that provides the owner with no liability in the case of having to close shop.

 

[upeccmi]

I know around me, gyms that sell yearly memberships need to be bonded for reasons like this and monthly memberships can be disputed with your credit card if they abruptly close.

 

[Pipelinesteve4]

I really hate how they say they let you know as soon as they could. That's is total crap. I would be filling my garage with all the gym equipment that would fit.

 

[Nabz]

Had this happen to a gym chain here in Ontario. One day i get to the gym and there's a note from the landlord saying they closed shop due to not paying rent in the past 3 months, then it was announced online that they went bankrupt.

Gym was nice but it had some shady accounting going on according to a few trainers.

 

[buck]

A couple decades back such stuff was happening where I live. I would work out and the next day show up and the gym would be empty no equipment, stripped to the floors and walls. There was a lot of back lash, so the state stepped in and passed a few new laws to help protect the consumer.

 

[grizzly978]

Thats a bummer, cool looking gyms...but the gym industry is very hard to be successful in. Gyms open and close every day ....hard to make a profit owning a gym

 

[DonJulio]

That's not a gym. That shit is part of what is wrong with our country!

Anyway.....The NYT article I read from last March made itsound like he was the Donald of gyms:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/fashion/david-barton-tmpl-reinvents-his-gym-empire.html?_r=0

 

[graybass]

Been in the gym business 30 years.
Here's how it works. (at least how it used to work) When you open a gym (private club) you have to post an insured bond of 100,000. If you close unexpectedly the members can pursue the Consumer agency for the money left on their membership. Takes a ton of time and paperwork. It's first come first serve and that 100k is gone real quick and everyone else is screwed. A large gym the 100k covers only a small percentage.

 

[bananas007]

Been in the gym business 30 years.
Here's how it works. (at least how it used to work) When you open a gym (private club) you have to post an insured bond of 100,000. If you close unexpectedly the members can pursue the Consumer agency for the money left on their membership. Takes a ton of time and paperwork. It's first come first serve and that 100k is gone real quick and everyone else is screwed. A large gym the 100k covers only a small percentage.

what kind of profit do you think a gym like 24 hour fitness pulls? How many members do you think a small/medium ma and pa type of gym would require to run profitably if they were to charge around 40-50/ month?

Besides the monthly due, what other ways are there to build a profit? selling RTD shakes and selling personal training. how much would this add to the profit..

I realize the questions are broad, but just want to get a rough idea.

 

[Turkishexpress]

Doing that crap should be illegal. We had that happen here in town to a Gold's Gym. They just closed their door without any warning. Nothing members could do to recover their loss. I bet though if you read the fine print of a gym membership that it has some sort of clause in legal terms that provides the owner with no liability in the case of having to close shop.

Depends on the state but gyms are required to be bonded in some for this reason. For example, when they're opening the doors they'll have to give the state a certain amount of money (MD was $100K back in the days if I remember correctly) and if something like this happens the members/staff could contact the state attorney to pull from this fund; if they were owed money. It was called a surety bond.

what kind of profit do you think a gym like 24 hour fitness pulls? How many members do you think a small/medium ma and pa type of gym would require to run profitably if they were to charge around 40-50/ month?

Besides the monthly due, what other ways are there to build a profit? selling RTD shakes and selling personal training. how much would this add to the profit..

I realize the questions are broad, but just want to get a rough idea.

Your questions are way too broad. Running a mom & pop gym would be very difficult unless you decided to open the gym in a relatively low population center. And the only reason for that is because none of the bigger players would want to even bother with it. Because there is not much money. The equations and models for the fitness industry have greatly changed in the last 15 years.

If you want to make a decent profit in today's market you need to adopt a low cost high volume model where you don't really make that much money off the memberships. Most of your profits will be made through personal/small group training along with retail and supplements. So you have to know your shit or you'll be up the creek. If you want your business to be successful for the next decade however you will need to figure out what the millennials in your demographic area want .

 

[bananas007]

Depends on the state but gyms are required to be bonded in some for this reason. For example, when they're opening the doors they'll have to give the state a certain amount of money (MD was $100K back in the days if I remember correctly) and if something like this happens the members/staff could contact the state attorney to pull from this fund; if they were owed money. It was called a surety bond.



Your questions are way too broad. Running a mom & pop gym would be very difficult unless you decided to open the gym in a relatively low population center. And the only reason for that is because none of the bigger players would want to even bother with it. Because there is not much money. The equations and models for the fitness industry have greatly changed in the last 15 years.

If you want to make a decent profit in today's market you need to adopt a low cost high volume model where you don't really make that much money off the memberships. Most of your profits will be made through personal/small group training along with retail and supplements. So you have to know your shit or you'll be up the creek. If you want your business to be successful for the next decade however you will need to figure out what the millennials in your demographic area want .

True. the one thing i don't like about the big gyms is how crowded they are. I dont care about the fancy spin classes, gigantic mirrors, TRX trainig, etc. etc. If I could have a gym that is still clean and well kept but they limited their memberships so that it is not crowded even during rush hours, I would be ok paying more for it. I wonder if there is a large enough population out there that feels the same way. It would be a high membership price, low volume medium sized gym.

 

[nothuman]

True. the one thing i don't like about the big gyms is how crowded they are. I dont care about the fancy spin classes, gigantic mirrors, TRX trainig, etc. etc. If I could have a gym that is still clean and well kept but they limited their memberships so that it is not crowded even during rush hours, I would be ok paying more for it. I wonder if there is a large enough population out there that feels the same way. It would be a high membership price, low volume medium sized gym.

Is it bad that I wouldn't join a gym that didn't have attractive women? As long as the equipment is good enough for me, I need eye candy. Usually they do like to join the gyms with the fancy spin classes and such. I might even get dates out of it [emoji6]

 

[Gravyv]

How common is it for gyms to not own the property they are in? What other expenses are there? I'm in NY and the gym's here are typically pretty expensive.

However theres a dolphin fitness near me that's been open for at least 2 decades and they only charge like $200-300 for a whole year. Of course the equipment is old as hell but it's adequate.

I got to a nysc that has slightly better equipment but it's also $70/mo. And apparently I've been told even at that range they don't make much profit. I'm guessing it's because they're renting the building they are in.