With the reopening of Ontario set to happen on January 31st, amenities that had to close down January 5th, were all hands-on deck to make sure that reopening is seamless. With the restrictions easing up, there are still some protocols in place. 50% capacity in places such as gyms, restaurants, casinos and cinemas. With the restrictions easing, the influx of consumers and individuals is set to increase tremendously.
When it comes to reopening a gym, this is not Aadhi MRT’s first go-around. Aadhi is the Assistant Manager at Planet Fitness, and he knows what it is like to have to close down shop. “Right, so we didn’t know that gyms are not going to be closed for a long time, since I know that the government’s like promoting us to get the third covid booster shots and they’re making sure everyone’s got their vaccine then. And we didn’t know that it’s not gonna last for a while, like, maybe a month or two. But I feel we felt, although it was shocking in the beginning, but we didn’t know that we’re going to reopen soon. So it didn’t take a toll on us. But we did have quite a few members that left and that cancelled their accounts.” Aadhi knows what the process is like now, and gave his thoughts on his initial reaction of learning he had to close down again.
In regards to reopening the gym, there were a few things that needed to be crossed off the checklist before the doors were able to open. “So, we’ve come back, we’ve sanitized all the machines back and forth. And you as you know, they’re down to like 50% capacity. That’s the restrictions as far are right now. And we’re trying to keep it below the limit, but we’ve never reached our full capacity, which is 300 right now, and just 50% that is 150 so we should be good for now.” Aadhi says that he and his team worked hard to get everything up to code in order for doors to reopen.
With being away for almost a month, some customers feel like they aren’t getting their moneys worth of the gym. “Right, we did have about 140 cancellations. And a lot of members were members who were been apart of this for like two, three years, four years, who have been loyal members. And that is quite a huge number for us to be honest. But we do look at the positive side. We do have a lot of new member signups for the January and February months because it’s a big season, right? we still have members sign up for the memberships and I hope it doesn’t take a toll on us.” Aadhi says that even though cancellations have been on the rise lately, new members joining has increased with it. “Yeah, but ever since we closed, we been having a lot of phone calls lately about getting new memberships, people are still interested to come in. And I’d say we’re looking for a new experience and a lot of new faces in the gym. And yeah, we’ve still had plenty even though we had around 140 cancellations. We’ve had about 70-80 signups during the same time even though the gyms are closed. So I’m looking forward to new season, to be honest.” Aadhi says that he hopes to see his regular gym goers along with the new influx of gym goers who are just starting at his gym.
With the Omicron variant still in the region, only time will tell if this reopening will be the one to keep Ontario open.
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