Boston Globe - Every year, we resolve to hit the gym more often and get fit. And by the end of January, many of us have missed workouts or given up altogether… According to Yifan Zhang, a 2010 graduate of Harvard College, part of the problem is that customers see gym membership fees as money spent, or “a sunk cost, especially if you pay at the beginning of the year.’’ That prompted the idea for Gym-Pact in Boston, which she created with Harvard classmate Geoff Oberhofer… Gym-Pact negotiated a group rate with Planet Fitness, then paid the membership fees for participants, who in return for a free membership agreed to work out at least four times per week. If they fail to follow the schedule in any one week, the participants pay $25.
Typical Ivy League overachiever, not enough that she got into Harvard but now she's going to rub it into everyones face that she's healthier and goes to the gym more often than us too. Thanks alot. Who are you to critique how often I use my gym membership? Just because I've skipped the gym the last two January's because of all the New Years Resolution phonies doesn't mean I need you running around telling me I should pay more during those months (never mind all the other months in between that I also elected not to go, I just wasn't sure when the resolutions faze was going to end last year so I played it safe and just skipped it all together).
In all seriousness though I'm shocked that the gyms are going along with this. I've been to the Planet Fitness in Government Center which is one of the test sites for this little social program. The place is a dump. If they me I'd have to pay a $25 fee every time I felt like skipping my work out in squalor like conditions I'd laugh, rip up the contract and never come back. The place is only $10 a month for a reason.
I don't skip the gym because I view my fee as a sunk cost, I skip the gym because deep down at heart I'm lazy and would rather chill with a plate of fries watching tv or playing jeopardy than go get my sweat on next to juice heads and fatties wearing yoga pants. I'd 100% just not sign up for the gym at all if this was the plan option put in front of me.
You may be a bit smarter than me and in much better shape, but you're not tricking me into that contract.
