These Gyms Survived the Pandemic. They’re Still Sweating.

livemint.com:

It’s almost February, which means that 43% of people reading this have already given up on their New Year’s resolutions. You might feel bad about that, but the leading beneficiaries of those broken promises, fitness clubs, usually don’t. Budget gyms, which get crowded in early January and sign up most of their new members early each year, operate on the principle of selling people a service most won’t use too often.

Keep the cost low, make the process of canceling your membership annoying enough, and the supply of new customers should exceed that of frustrated people literally throwing in the towel each year. That model has felt the burn recently: Weight-loss drugs can help people meet their resolutions with far less willpower and perspiration, the pandemic saw a boom in sales of fitness equipment like Peloton bikes that offered spinning classes in your basement and the Covid-19 emergency itself devastated gyms more than any other business. Like a bodybuilder suddenly cutting back on calories, though, the industry lost bulk during shutdowns, but emerged looking chiseled.

In 2019 there were more than 41,000 health clubs in America with 64.2 million members—anything from mom-and-pop gyms to yoga studios to office gyms to YMCAs to outlets of national chains. Three years later that had shrunk to barely 31,000 with plenty of new customers. While chains suffered too—24 Hour Fitness went bankrupt and closed locations—those that survived captured new customers.