Got Guts? by Art Rothafel

Got Gots?

Best Buy sure does. 

And, I love it.  Someone in their marketing department is so on top of the convergence occurring within electronic arts that they made an incredibly bold decision.   They are piloting a program within their stores to carry musical instruments.  And, I don’t mean the cheap junk.  It’s all top-of-the-line quality products and they’ve dedicated between 3,000 to 5,000 square feet in at least 10 stores to see test the program. 

Someone had guts enough to say, “We can open up a new profit center by selling musical instruments… especially the type that can hook up to home computers and home theater systems.”

So what’s my point?

Look at most fitness clubs or studios. 

It’s been the same basic model for more than 50 years.

At some point a fitness maverick is going to come along and within his or her four walls will be a complete fitness retail store.  Not a pro shop, but a full-blown fitness store with state-of-the art products from shoes, apparel and supplements to home fitness equipment, books, CDs, DVDs and even frozen healthy foods.  It will be "all things" fitness related.

I’ve always felt that clubs and studios often miss several profit-making opportunities.   That’s why we market and sell branded products such as journals, reference manuals, skin care, supplements, apparel and green tea -- and continually preach the virtues the creating multiple profit-centers.

Sure, it takes capitalization, but more importantly, it takes guts!