From “slaynews.com”
Membership numbers for Planet Fitness have plummeted after a female customer drew national attention to a man shaving in the women’s locker room under the company’s transgender policy.
As Slay News reported in March, Patricia Silva, a female member of Planet Fitness in Alaska, was shocked to find a middle-aged man shaving in the mirror of the women’s locker room.
Silva said the man, who claimed to be “transgender,” refused to leave, despite the locker room supposedly being a safe space for women and girls to change.
She also posted a description of the incident on social media, as the Daily Mail reported:
“I went to Planet Fitness… Walked in the bathroom, and there stands a MAN shaving…
“I looked at him, said ‘hey’ …
“He looked up… and I said, ‘You are a man shaving in the women’s bathroom, and I am not OK with that.’
“He replied… ‘Well, I’m LGB…’
“Whatever that is… nevertheless, I told him ‘You’re a MAN and you’re invading my space!’
“He wanted to argue to justify why he can be there… I walked away…” she said.
“I stepped out of the locker room and loudly asked the front desk, ‘Are you aware that there is a MAN shaving in the women’s bathroom… I’m not OK with that!?’
“The two men standing at the desk put their heads down, and their tails between their legs!
“As I was walking out the door…at my back, a woman shouts ‘it’s a girl’… I shouted back ‘It’s a man!”’
However, Silva shared a picture of the man on social media which shows he was not “a girl” as staff claimed.
After Silva’s post went viral and made headlines, Planet Fitness canceled her membership.
The issue triggered public outcry over the company’s policy which led to boycotts.
Planet Fitness admitted it suffered a “fairly significant” drop in membership sign-ups after the media firestorm.
In response, the company plans to hike prices by 50% to compensate for the losses.
On Thursday, executives slashed its forecasts for sales and profits.
They blame the March 11 incident at Planet Fitness in Fairbanks, Alaska for the drop in membership numbers.
After the release of weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue, Chief Financial Officer Tom Fitzgerald said:
“The first part of March was pretty good.
“And then once social media sort of blew up over our policy issue, we definitely saw a change in the results in the back half of March.
“Joins and cancels were fairly significantly affected.”
The company ended the quarter with 19.6 million members.
While the company did see an 8% increase from a year ago, the figure missed internal expectations, according to DA Davidson analyst Linda Bolton Weiser.
The company also saw a double-digit drop in traffic to its website, Bolton Weiser said in a research note.
“It is my hope that throughout the globe, Planet Fitness members will continue canceling their membership until this woke organization ‘chooses’ to care enough about women’s rights and for children and remove men from a women’s locker room,” Silva said in a statement.
Planet Fitness said it now expects this year’s revenue to rise by 4% to 6%, compared with its previous estimate of 6% to 7%.
It forecast that profits will be up between 7% and 9%, compared with its previous estimate of a 10% to 11% increase.
Craig Benson — interim chief executive at the nation’s largest gym chain, which operates 2,500 locations — echoed his financial chief.
“Media mentions relating to the incident peaked in the middle of March, which we believe contributes to some of the softness we saw in joins for the balance of the month as well as some increase in cancels,” Benson said.
“The good news is we’ve seen the joins rebound, but cancels have remained elevated.”
Still, the company, famous for its inexpensive $10 membership fees, said it’s raising prices to $15 for new members beginning in the summer.
The increase marks the first hike since 1998.
Planet Fitness had been testing higher prices in some markets before the uproar.
“It will take some time for the benefit of the price change to expand our store-level margins as the price increase will only be on new classic card memberships,” said Fitzgerald, who is retiring in August
Next month, Colleen Keating, who had required employees to undergo “unconscious bias training” and supported “hiring through a DEI lens” at her previous company, will replace Benson as the new CEO.
In September, longtime CEO Chris Rondeau was unexpectedly ousted.
In February, he left the board as the company slashed 9% of its workforce.