Value and Coddling
Value and Coddling
In this blog entry, we want to talk about a phenomenon that extends across every iteration of business. In this instance, there are 2 separate but related issues that have come up in conversation on 4 separate occasions in the last two days. As with most of our postings, emails, rants, etc., we tend to speak on issues when they’ve popped up multiple times within a short period. Such is the case with regards to what we will call value and coddling.
As full disclosure, and of some importance to this post, please be forgiving of a choppy read. “We” formulate these posts together, as a team; but only one of us generally sits down to put the thoughts to paper. In this case, “I” am at work, on a double, and running on almost no sleep from last night’s shift. The writer’s sword is likely a bit dull today. More importantly, however, is the fact that this comes to you from a fire station. From a career firefighter. And composed alongside a Doctor of Physical Therapy, which as you may or may not know, is also considered a public service profession. We don’t cite this for an accolade or recognition but instead to lend some credibility and history to what we have to say. Let’s get to the fat and nasty of it…
Since before Evolve Gym opened, we elected to do everything that we reasonably could to maintain a simple, equal, and quality environment. The goal has been to offer a space at an appropriate price point that does not favor any one person or group. Without getting into vision/mission statement type discussions, the salient point is that we want a gym that is perfect for a small group of humans, and within which, everyone is present with a similar mindset and drive. Rich/poor, strong/weak, fat/skinny… It doesn’t matter. Be kind, work hard, and have a good time pursuing a passion that has always been very important to us. With this goal in mind, we have elected not to accept group discounts, insurance memberships, corporate memberships, or any other discounts – including fire, police, military, etc. That last part tends to ruffle some feathers, and that is the core of our first contentious item to discuss.
You see, when we first opened, there was a gal making it a point to bash Evolve – “they’re anti public service!” and “they hate the military, don’t support them!” If you know Patrick, you know this is pretty impressively stupid and entirely off base. If you know Kate, you might know that she has, as Evolve, donated TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, more than we are going to discuss in detail, to local fire and police over recent years. Now, if you’re any smarter than a brick, you can probably see that we do in fact appreciate these groups. (Ironically, this initial nay-sayer couldn’t actually hack it in the fire service. So that’s neat). What brings this topic to light today, in this post, is that it has come up multiple times in the last few days. Coworkers and fellow firefighters bashing us because we don’t give discounts (behind our backs, of course), some price and value discussions, and most recently a discussion with a former gym owner. This last conversation was about facilitating special guests. In short, each of us has made an effort to support certain professionals coming through town on training. It’s the right thing to do, though it causes some logistical problems and at the end of the day, people are people and sometimes bend rules. But the catch to all of this was the conversation still boiled down to the idea of quick cash from the visitors. If you’ve been with us for any length of time, you know that isn’t our style. What may appear as elitist, or unsupportive, or whatever descriptor you choose, may instead be an effort to stand by our values.
So this is all just a very, very long way of saying that we run our business the way we see fit. Sometimes that will resonate with other folks’ values, sometimes it will not. But for anyone to judge our support based on a bullshit $5 discount is absolutely absurd. As it stands, you can go down the street to a gym with a thin blue line flag that, during the pandemic, posted “fuck the police” with regards to regulations. You can bathe in that hypocrisy while you save a few bucks. Coddled feelings and recognition, man. That ain’t the move. And if we really want to ruffle some feathers, we can take a look at our current reality. You know who has gotten a steady paycheck, every two weeks, regardless of pandemic, unemployment, or whatever other garbage is going on? Yep, that’s right – yours truly, the fireman and all of his compatriots.
Related but as a much broader view of the conversation, is the idea of value. We won’t pretend to be experts on anything, and certainly not on business matters, though we have postured ourselves a very specific way based on our experiences and our trajectory. Specifically, we strive to maintain a reasonable price point for a service/space that we believe reflects the value of your dollar. 50 bucks. 50 bucks gets you the best equipment that we have been able to compile, under a roof that is sound, in locations that are very reasonable. Parking, lighting, access, and more are all pretty decent with Evolve. You can even text the owner at 9pm to bitch about ridiculous things, and get a response. (They didn’t last long). There are trade-offs, of course. In exchange for a capped membership, screened members, and a gym that is never busy, members have to be mindful of our budget and time constraints. We feel the value holds against these trades.
But that is all a very selfish assessment of value. On a grander scale, it seems as though we are all so obsessed with feeling special and either saving a buck, or feeling like we’re getting a win, that we’ve stopped assessing value. This applies to all sorts of services and products that we deal with, and it seems like an erosion of values. You could even take this a step or twelve further and examine our ravenous appetite for content – mediocre shit is consuming our digital life. Content versus time – is there value? That is a rabbit hole we won’t go down but maybe it is worth a moment of thought. We all work hard for our cash and the free time we are able to sneak in; where and how are we choosing to spend it?