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Bally Total Fitness, the notoriously deceptive gym, has found a new way to screw over its loyal members. A reader informs us that "the Bally's Sports Club in Worldwide Plaza announced this week that, effective Dec. 15, it will no longer provide clean towels for members to use."
Earlier this year the club got a failing grade for their cleanliness, so a decision to remove towels likely won't help out with the whole bacteria festering away on the equipment thing. The tipster continues, saying: "This raised concerns among members who worried about potential health issues, not to mention the luxury of having a clean towel to use to dry off after a shower or a swim in the club's pool. I think that it'll take one person to slip on wet equipment (like a treadmill) or a wet floor, and the club will wish that towels was its biggest expense."
A call to Bally confirmed that all of their clubs will be pulling towels from their shelves, allegedly due to budget concerns. When asked, New York Sports Club said they would be continuing their towel service...now if only you could get out of that iron-clad Bally membership. For now, it's B.Y.O.T. time (which could be a good thing?).
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This place has had a lousy reputation for years. Anybody who is currently a member should have had plenty of warning the of the crap they were signing up for.
use your own towel.
the possession of a towel during interstellar adventures is in itself a symbol of great virtue.
any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
They have filed for Chapter 11, so I guess cutting corners anywhere they can has to work: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Bally-Total-Fitness-Files-Chapter/story.aspx?guid={6CDA1F5A-73AF-42AA-9C33-6CDC7D915C88}
They have filed for Chapter 11, so I guess cutting corners anywhere they can has to work.
Zodak- you beat me to it.. but made my day :)
I'm not surprised. Their towels may be cheap, but it adds up when people steal dozens of them every day.
seriously, I work out everyday at the Sheikwinox, and there isn't a towel issue... but I have a lot of crap I bring with me every morning so that I can work out, shower and get ready for work ... I use 2 towels little ones to work out, and 3 to shower - 1 body, 1 hair and one to sit on the bench (big ones) - so with everything I have with me already... carrying 5 towels with me would be a burden... and considering that this place is in a commerical building in a commericial area, I doubt many of the members actually live in the neighborhood to take care of their business in the morning before going to work.
Geez... #7 uses a lot of towels...
"I use 2 towels little ones to work out, and 3 to shower - 1 body, 1 hair and one to sit on the bench (big ones) - so with everything I have with me already... carrying 5 towels with me would be a burden"
Can you say "high maintenance?"
If you've washed your hair, the towel you dry it with should still be quite clean. Same with the body towel.
#7
2 towels to work out and 3 to shower? no wonder this country is in the pickle it's in. TOTAL excess everywhere. Now even towel use is supersized?! Maybe it's time to learn how to get by with less.
CLEAN Towels you say? I bet their 'clean' towels have 7 different types of herpes and 3 different species of crabs.
The little towels my local Equinox provides is only slightly softer than a sheet of sandpaper.
I used to belong to the WWP Bally's. The towels were really rough and quite small (just barely big enough to cover what needed to be covered after a shower), so I can't imagine why anyone would want to steal one. My guess is that the real cost is the laundering of all those towels.
That said, the towels were pretty key to my ability to work out there before work, since it would suck to have to carry around a wet towel with me all day or pay for a long-term locker.
...considering that this place is in a commerical building in a commericial area, I doubt many of the members actually live in the neighborhood to take care of their business in the morning before going to work.
Um, it's in a residential building (the "Residences at World Wide Plaza," not the office building across the plaza) in a residential area (Hell's Kitchen). I picked that gym precisely because it was right around the corner from my apartment and was significantly cheaper than the NYSC and Equinox that were the main alternatives in the area.
Overshare.
#13 - WWP also consists of a 50 story commercial building. I'm sure a lot of people who go to that gym do not live in the neighborhood. Its mid-town too, you know?
#7 - how big you are? 300lbs?
My co-workers go to gyms. They refuse to take stairs between adjacent floors, won't move a length of a street block unless carried by a taxi BUT they talk about their "strenuous" gym routines. I walk daily from 34th to 57th back & forth, do not use elevators unless it's more than 5 floors in-between, still I eat what I want & drink more beer than a British soccer hooligan yet I'm in better shape than they are.
The worst fear of the health club business is that one day everone they sold those memberships to will show up.
I wonder if #7 is the same person who proceeds to lotion every nook and cranny in the locker room as well. Interestingly, the 3 or 4 towel people (seriously, one to sit on the bench in the locker room?) are the same people who go barefoot in the shower. ew.
In this economy, you want to find any gym out there with a month to month membership. And bring your own fucking towel, you babies.
Do I at least get a towel after my happy ending? Oops, wrong club.
Is there alot of cruising in the locker room at Bally's?
#7 is one of those creepy trolls who doesn't really work out, he parades naked through the locker room like a Neanderthal 20 days after the expiration due date and uses these towels a make shift pup tent in the steam room. Bally’s is dirty, dirty place.
When is this dinosaur going to die? Bally's corporate mentality is so skewed and "sales at all costs" philosophy has consistently led to shady and deceptive techniques to separate you from your credit card for the rest of your life.
Rocco Caastellano
http://askroccoblog.com
When Bally's owned Crunch they tried this $1 towel deposit thing. We used to take towels from behind the counter when they weren't looking and try to make them give us $1 for each towel we brought back. Didn't last long...
As a longtime member I know Bally's has always been a ripoff. Towels were one of the selling points that differentiated NYC "Sports" Clubs from "Total Fitness" Clubs. I know from past experience that Bally's doesn't like to hear from the State Attorney General. All members who don't like the towel policy should contact them.