esrosedotblog

SPIRITUAL RENEWAL

I renewed my Golds Gym Membership today.

It is spiritual, as I don't go there anymore. I am doing the bike ride every day and have eschewed extraneous muscles. Spiritual as in virtual. I was reaching for the title.

Why should I renew a membership that I have not used in over a year; maybe two?

It is an interesting economic problem.

You see, when we moved here, Golds was desperate. They pitched us a deal where, if we bought two years of membership, they would give us a lifetime renewal rate of 99 dollars.

Shit. In Boston, 99 dollars barely bought us two months at the gym and that was 'off time'; no lunch or dinner hour (for us) usage.

So, we bought the deal.

Now, PS has grown, the gym craze has re-emerged, and Golds is beating away applicants at the door. It costs a LOT to join. There is an initiation or signup fee and the dues per year are in the hundreds.

So. The question is 'how long does it make sense to pay 99 a year for something that costs three times as much new?"

Three years?

Forever?

John says just to buy it. He knows my fickle heart.

A couple of bad days biking or a knee injury or something might send me back to Golds.

Unlikely, but, possible.

So I renewed.

I always think that they are going to cut off the lifetime 99 but they do not and have not for many years.

There are a select few of us who still have it.

Maybe that is it.

I am buying exclusivity.

That is really it in the photo. Just in case you were thinking it was not.

My club.