their phone number and up pops their photo and the type of membership they have. I love it because that’s all it does and that’s exactly what we need it to do.” While the software is certainly use-
ful, Winters agrees that it is noth- ing close to sophisticated. After all it doesn’t store members’ personal data, accept payments, create membership cards or run reports on trends, sales or retention, functions that many clubs would classify as must-haves. But Winters and her team are more
than satisfied with the check-in sys- tem and the overall low-tech nature of the club. In fact, Winters sees her club’s old-
school technology as a positive. “It takes members at least 10 seconds to check in, and that gives the staff time to say hello and get them a towel or bottle of water or anything they may need,” she says. This computer lag time plays an im-
portant role in helping to set a friendly and social tone the moment a member steps through the doors. It allows ev- eryone to be welcomed by name, and this encourages conversations to keep flowing on the gym floor. And what about collecting data and
tracking trends? “If I want to know what our current busy times are,
instead of relying on a computer I just ask the staff,” she says. As for the club’s resistance and car-
dio equipment, not surprisingly, it is also far from state-of-the-art. Instead of presenting a field of shiny sleek low-profile machines, the gym floor is a collection of mostly free weights
“Older equipment was built to last, and since there’s a lot less that can go wrong with it
you’re not always repairing it.”
along with a good variety of bulky re- sistance machines that have been col- lected over the decades and are mostly 20-years-old. Four used treadmills were added to the mix three years ago, but the favourite treadmills are about 18-years-old because they have a downhill feature that members en- joy using. “Older equipment was built to last,
and since there’s a lot less that can go wrong with it you’re not always repair- ing it,” says Winters, noting that the
club promptly reupholsters benches and pads when wear begins to show. Occasionally a new member will ap-
proach Winters about trouble connect- ing to the club WIFI. “That’s because we don’t have it,” she responds with a smile. Being a WIFI-free zone has never caused anyone to quit despite the majority of members being in the 22–60-year-old age range. “Because we don’t have WIFI, people
at our gym forge relationships, cre- ate coffee groups and make long last- ing friendships since they’re not on their devices checking Facebook to see if they’ve missed something,” says Winters, who admits that the teenag- ers just use their data when they need to connect. “We’ve been open for 68 years, and our longest standing mem- ber has been with us for 58 years. We’re not a high-tech club, and we like it that way.”
Pure Fitness Canada “When we were choosing our equip- ment we went after the best of every- thing in strength and cardio,” says Anthony Colangelo, president of the newly-opened Pure Fitness Canada, located in Toronto’s business dis- trict. “And the highest-end equipment comes with a lot of technology.” There’s definitely no chance of
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January/February 2018 Fitness Business Canada 35
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