hard sales pitches
Jan. 6th, 2026 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribI'm fat, have a sedentary job, and hate hard sales pitches. This is my story.
As reported above, I'm fat and unless I take active steps I will get fatter. To avoid becoming sedentary enough to grow moss, I have a gym membership. To encourage me to actually go to the gym, I have a personal trainer. I've been going to the same gym since 2018, however due to recent staff changes they can't provide a trainer for when I'm available. So I decided to go shopping.
One of the gyms I visited was the local outpost of a national chain. (It's named after a famous city.) Their parking lot (at 4:00 pm on a Monday) was full, and I noticed, immediately on walking in, they had two rows of desks behind the reception counter. Here comes the hard sell, I thought, and I almost walked right out. I decided to stay.
Well, I got a tour of their nice but crowded facility, then got interrogated by the sales guy. His "head of personal training" took me in for a couple of quick physical tests (stand on one foot, etc.) then I finally got the pricing. It was confusing and it wasn't until I got home and used my calculator that I found all of the membership options were the same dollars, just paid in different increments. They also wanted to sell me personal training sessions in buckets at above the going rate.
There's another gym, closer to my house, which is smaller, less crowded, and has comparable rates. I think I'm going there instead.
As reported above, I'm fat and unless I take active steps I will get fatter. To avoid becoming sedentary enough to grow moss, I have a gym membership. To encourage me to actually go to the gym, I have a personal trainer. I've been going to the same gym since 2018, however due to recent staff changes they can't provide a trainer for when I'm available. So I decided to go shopping.
One of the gyms I visited was the local outpost of a national chain. (It's named after a famous city.) Their parking lot (at 4:00 pm on a Monday) was full, and I noticed, immediately on walking in, they had two rows of desks behind the reception counter. Here comes the hard sell, I thought, and I almost walked right out. I decided to stay.
Well, I got a tour of their nice but crowded facility, then got interrogated by the sales guy. His "head of personal training" took me in for a couple of quick physical tests (stand on one foot, etc.) then I finally got the pricing. It was confusing and it wasn't until I got home and used my calculator that I found all of the membership options were the same dollars, just paid in different increments. They also wanted to sell me personal training sessions in buckets at above the going rate.
There's another gym, closer to my house, which is smaller, less crowded, and has comparable rates. I think I'm going there instead.
