I’ve gone to many different gyms throughout my life and have always thought it was a good business model. Purely subscription driven, hardly ever have more than 2 people working probably making minimum age, no crazy hidden expenses outside the norm.

But I follow a bunch of people online (so I take their advice with a grain of salt) who say they’re bad businesses, have a high default rate, etc.

Why is this?

Seems like it would be great. High startup-up cost to get the location, marketing push, and the heavy-equipment investment, but after that’s what’s left? You pay 1 or 2 people to man the front desk, a cleaner a couple to come by for an hour at close, and maintenance for the machines — vs pure, stable monthly revenue that is frankly hard to cancel.

Am I missing something, or are the crowded gyms I go to outlyers in a sea of dead gyms?