RIP: Nottingham Gym

Imagine going to your gym to work out, and instead of being greeted by ladies in smart suits, you find a piece of paper saying something vague like “Due to a problem, the gym has closed.” Sound familiar? This happened at Golds Gym in 2003 and it happened again this morning, just a few blocks away, at Nottingham Gym. Are the gyms in Jing'an cursed?

Apparently, at this small gym, things had been going down the toilet for a while, including one of the toilets itself, which is said to have been broken for months. Within the last couple months, the hairdryers stopped working, some machines were left unrepaired and the fees for joining had gone from 1,600 yuan per year to 1,000 yuan per year.

A (now former) gym member said in the Shanghai Morning Post (in Chinese) that she was afraid of signing up for any gym which could eventually close down without a warning, so when choosing a gym, she only checked out the places in the downtown area. She assumed (ass+u+me?) that downtown gyms must be doing well if they could afford the high rent. She went with Nottingham in the end because it had been open for three years and there were a lot of people working out when she was there. (She didn’t mention the fact that it’s cheap.) She was only able to use 3-4 months of her yearlong membership.

It has been said that the owners have shifted the blame of the gym’s failure to the accountants. Shanghaiist really doubts that any refund will be going back to these members. We're still waiting for a refund for our membership at Gold’s Gym.

Photo from francesbean. Not the Frances Bean.