AIBU too feel that customers were right in voting with their feet.

[worridmum]

Someone in a town local to me brought up a couple of gyms in 2017, which sadly have now closed as of this last week, for the reason of lack of customers. Apparently when the new owner purchased them they were profitable and had rough gender ratio of 60/40 male to female members.

The new owner decided that they wanted to increase the number of women attending their gyms so brought in a policy of woman only hours between 4pm and 8pm Monday to Friday and Saturday 9am-4pm. But instead of offering male members a discount because all the prime hours had become female they expected the males users to pay the same membership rates as the female yet being locked out from using the gym in prime time.

So when the predicted drop of the male clientele (why would you pay for a gym your not allowed to use) happened, instead of adjusting the problem possibly looking at altering the woman hours to attempt to win back her customer base (as in maybe reducing the number of days or hours that were woman only as all prime time is a bit much). She went on a massive rant to the local press suggesting that her clients were sexist pigs for leaving her set of gyms in droves, which basically pushed the majority of the remaining male members to unsubscribe and only reversing this policy 9 months after implementing it after the damage had been done.

AIBU too feel that the owner caused her own business to fail by treating a large portion of her clientele badly rather then the town being a massive den of sexist pigs as she claimed in the local news this week when she closed her gyms permanently as the woman who joined up after this policy was implemented did no were near cover the loss of the ones she lost as she apparently had only predicting a lose of 5% to 10% of her male customer bases despite them being locked out of all the peak times of the gym while not even getting a discount to reflect the limited time they could use it.

AIBU to think she brought this situation on herself and to have lost most of my sympathy for her after she went on a massive rant about how sexist the town is for voting with their feet and not supporting her local run business.

[5foot5]

That sounds nuts. So basically men were unable to use the gym on weekday evenings and pretty much all day Saturday? Never mind a discount I am surprised any man would join at all under those circumstances.

[Didntcomeheretofuckspiders]

So assuming the gym was open 7-10 Mon-Sun which is 105 hours, men couldn’t use the gym for 27 of those hours?! That’s over 25% and ALL of the peak hours that they were expected to pay for an not use!

Nothing wrong with having one women only session per week to encourage women into fitness but excluding men from all peak hours is completely discriminatory!

[KungFuEric]

Most gyms who offer women's only sessions seem to have a segregated room for the women, so it's still fully operational. It does seem drastic to close entirely to men.

[worridmum]

Yes I don't mind woman only sessions (more understandable would of be 2 or 3 days of prime time for woman only sessions or spread it out a bit) but having them all for prime hours of use and expecting the male customers to put up and shut up was a bit much.

These were existing members that were expected to go along with there new terms rather then men signing up for it as she bought out the previous owner as sadly he had a stroke and could no longer manage the gym chain.

[RavenclawRealist]

Shocking business plan! I can see the idea behind it but way to extreme with no compromise and no ability to recognise a mistake and adjust course!! To expect men to pay full price and only be able to uses the gym a certain times and not the peak times is ridiculous! I don't think it makes them sexist to find somewhere they can access facilities at a time that suits them! She had a bad business plan that failed and she won't be going herself any favours slagging locals off for it!

[TonTonMacoute]

If you want to attract more women, offer better deals for women.
Reduced price membership for limited hours, offer a crèche, cashback if you introduce a friend, special deal for couples.

There must be lots of things you could try that don’t involve stopping other existing members from using the gym, especially at peak times.

[Ellisandra]

Could anyone be that bad at business?

My first thought was that she never intended to run them as gyms and was trying to run them into the ground to then try to persuade planners for a change of use, claiming that they weren't viable properties for gyms.

Disclaimer: I have no idea if that would work with a change of use application.

[worridmum]

I am only posting this as a couple of people I work with was suggesting it might of been because of sexism rather then poor business planning and i was thinking am I wrong in thinking that it was perfectly understandable for them to vote with their feet to a full price gym that they can use for peak time.

She had only planned for a lost of 5% or at maximum 10% of her male customers and apparently could not understand when around 80% or more left (my DH was one as he said why should he pay £45 a month for a gym he could barely use). She did not listen to reason until 9 months after.

It was a real shame as the gyms in question were brilliant, they had a great cafe and most had great swimming pools and state of the art equipment (1 even had a creche ).

[worridmum]

I doubt that was her plan as in my area its pretty easy to get change of use applications and land for building on is not in high demand (not South East of UK).

I simply think she was naive and new to the business world as she was quite young i don't know her exact age but less then 30 (not that I am saying being young is a bad thing).

[planetclom]

Link to news item please

[KungFuEric]

Makes you wonder how she was ever in a position to buy a chain of gyms at under 30 with seemingly no business sense.

[Idontevencareanymore]

If she wanted female only gyms she should have marketed them as that imo.
My husband uses the gym between 6 and 8. His work hours and mine exclude him using it at any other time. Therefore he'd not have been able to use it. And would have left.

So yes, she's been a bit silly. And no the men who were excluded weren't being sexist. That's a massive chunk of unavailability.

[worridmum]

planetclom it was a local newspaper and apparently they don't have the article online so when i am home i will upload a scan of the newspaper.

[worridmum]

If she wanted a woman only gym wouldn't she of been better off establishing it as a new enterprise rather then buying into an existing one with an established mixed gender clientele.

[000bourneFarm]

There are so many financial, legal and business statements of principle in your posts OP that your post is not NFM (Normal For Mumsnet).

You should come clean and state your connection with this business.

You clearly have one.

[YearOfYouRemember]

Agreed.

[allegretto]

Apparently

This obviously never happened.

[HeresMe]

As these are the key times I go to the gym seeing as I work 8-5, I would leave the gym, nothing to do with sexism I'd just want to use what I paid for.

[SparkleFizz]

It’s a silly policy if you want to keep male customers.

Clearly a man who was only able to, or who preferred to exercise during peak hours or on Saturday daytimes, would be looking for a new gym, even if a price reduction was offered.

It’s not sexist for a man to choose a gym that will let him exercise at a time that suits his lifestyle.

[Cheeseislife]

That sounds like commercial suicide, so not surprising it went belly up! What an indignant twit she must be

[BewareOfDragons]

Are you sure this wasn't a spoof news site? This just doesn't sound possible...

[Tarraleah]

That woman is a nutcase and didn't think anything through.

I am female, and I wouldn't have joined! I do hate "female only" segregated places for a start, and even if I did agree with the principle, it would mean not being able to go to the gym with DH. What's the point?

In my (possibly limited) experience, banning men is not the way to increase female clientele.

[MissionItsPossible]

I'll have to wait until you scan the news article OP

[minisoksmakehardwork]

If there were two gyms and she wanted to run the 'women only prime time' then why on Earth didn't she trial it in one gym and see how it went? It's business suicide to go in and change things so brutally and so quickly.

I don't blame customers for leaving. They weren't able to use the facilities they had signed up for.

[worridmum]

Fine i come clear its my SiL partners business, she was sounding off to me about her clientele being sexist despite what advice we gave her about not doing something so silly, she ignored everyone and now is moaning about how sexist the town in question is and how much money she has lost because of the failed business.

I am sorry for not mentioning the family connections i did not want it to be overshadowed by possible bias as a inlaw post.