A Fitness Problem

Central Iowa has a fitness problem.  But not like you might think.

In the next few weeks, LifeTime Fitness is going to open a huge franchised health club in suburban Des Moines.  This is the latest of many other large 'full-service' fitness facilities in the metro area, including Prairie Life Fitness, Seven Flags Fitness, Aspen Athletic Club, Fitness World West, plus several newer YMCAs that exist in and around the city.

In the meantime, we have a variety of other not-quite-full service health facilities, such as Planet Fitness or CrossFit Des Moines.  Of course, we also have a bunch of 24-hour self-service options, like Anytime Fitness or Snap Fitness.

We also have all kinds of other wellness entities (some with multiple locations and many locally-owned) that actually exist for various boutique exercise classes, including Farrell's Extreme Bodyshaping or Kosama, to name two of more than 20.

So in a metro area of about 300,000, we are overrun with health clubs.  Unfortunately, we are not overrun with healthy looking people.

This begs the question, how do all of these fitness facilities make enough money to exist?  The only logical conclusion I can come up with is, this is an industry that is given money in return for nothing.  Think about it -- thousands of people pay monthly and/or annual membership fees to partake in the venue and/or classes, and then inevitably many of them never actually show up.

This is clearly a great business model, offering a pre-paid service that is never actually performed, with no guarantee of a better outcome.  As a fee-based financial advisor, the cynical side of me would say this business model is a lot that of a commission-based financial advisor!

In the end, not all of these fitness places are going to make it.  That's good, because later this year I'll be looking to buy some excellent used exercise equipment.