Seattle Executive Fitness - 700 5th Avenue - Location Closing!

The latest sign that Merle Gregg's Seattle Executive Fitness seems close to bankruptcy has arrived. That sign is that Merle Gregg is closing the 700 5th Avenue 14th Floor Seattle Executive Fitness gym location. A few weeks before the 5th Avenue Seattle Executive Fitness location closed entirely, the staff there closed the swimming pool. In the process of closing the swimming pool, they told members all sorts of lies and made all manner of excuses about why they were closing it, which led people to complain about the problem on yelp.com. The fact is that many Seattle Executive Fitness members only visited the 5th Avenue location to use the pool. The rest of that Seattle Executive Fitness gym location was too small and overcrowded anyway.

In the meantime, members have been quitting the horrible Seattle Executive Fitness in droves. It is just bizarre that the gym's absurd owner Merle Gregg has managed to take two once very serviceable fitness clubs and completely run them into the ground. When Merle Gregg bought out the gyms from All-Star Fitness in the summer of 2011, they are quite nice places to work out. Then, step by step, Merle Gregg and the people who work for him, did everything imaginable to incrementally ruin the places. 

Meanwhile, just trying to quit Seattle Executive Fitness is a project in itself. The management and staff don't even allow members to follow the procedures outlined in their own written contract. Instead they require members to send a written letter by mail to their billing company ABC Financial. The process seems like all part of their many self defeating ripoff schemes, designed to irritate members infinitely while they try in vain to suck every last buck they can out of the people they've suckered into joining their travesty of a gym. 

Most of the people who used to workout at Seattle Executive Fitness have already moved on to other gyms in the area. It seems like every gym in Seattle has its problems and deficiencies, but Seattle Executive Fitness has managed to find ways to top the list of places to avoid at all costs. Since the buck stops at the top, every that has made Seattle Executive Fitness such a nightmare is all Merle Gregg's fault.

The Hours of Operation Have Been Cutback at Seattle Executive Fitness - The Death Spiral Continues

Unfortunately for members who work all day, the Seattle Executive Fitness gym on Olive Way in downtown Seattle has reduced its evening hours. The Olive Way gym now closes at 9:00 PM weeknights. Previously, the gym was open until 11:00 PM, a minimum reasonable hour for a gym that portends to cater to "executives", many of whom work late into the evening and would like to get in a workout on the way home from the office. For the moment, the other location, the tiny gym in the Municipal Tower on Fifth Avenue remains open until 10:00 PM weeknights.

With each passing week there are increasing indications that Seattle Executive Fitness is thrashing about in the throws of what seems like an inevitable death spiral. The signs of doom are everywhere at Seattle Executive Fitness: from the reduced size of the Olive Way gym, loss of the separate Olive Way street level entrance, desperate attempts to diversify into the "Spa" business, defections by trainers and group class instructors, removal of equipment, removal of the Women's Only workout room, the lack of maintenance, and now the reduction in hours of operation.

There are numerous competing gyms with longer hours than Seattle Executive Fitness, including 24 hour Fitness (which obviously is open 24/7), which has a large location just a few blocks east of the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location. Much of what is happening at Seattle Executive Fitness seems like an extreme failure to listen to or to pay attention to customers and customer service. The people who manage Seattle Executive Fitness have failed to understand, internalize, and implement, even the most basic tenants of the Business 101 fundamentals. Anyone who's taken even just a few college business administration courses knows how nearly every such scenario ends.

If only there were indications that Seattle Executive Fitness management might step back from the edge of the cliff where it currently stands, but there don't seem to be any at all. If the history of Merle Gregg's previous gym business ventures is any predictor of the end result for Seattle Executive Fitness, his business track record indicates that he will won't listen to anyone, not even the paying customers he is driving away, until its too late, and the gym's doors are closed forever, not just at 9:00 PM weeknights.

As An Indication of the Apparently Desperate Financial Times at Seattle Executive Fitness, Two Thirds of the Third Floor Workout Space is Gone!

The latest sign of financial desperation at Seattle Executive Fitness (SEF), is that the company has reduced the size of its third floor workout out area by nearly two thirds! Most gym members have developed the impression this is a sign that Seattle Executive Fitness may be taking its last desperate gasps before complete financial collapse. This is the third time Seattle Executive Fitness has given floor space back to its landlord at 509 Olive Way in a series of desperate attempts to save on fixed costs such as space rental.

The first wave of space reductions came about a year ago when Seattle Executive Fitness reduced the size of its stretching floor by half. At the same time SEF made part of what was the circuit training area a stretching floor and crammed the circuit training equipment that was there into what was left of the stretching room. The second wave of space reductions, an even more obvious attempt to cut costs, when removal of the formal street level entrance lobby on the first floor. The Seattle Executive Fitness gym at 509 Olive Way no longer has its own separate entrance. Instead, the gym requires members to enter through the main lobby of the building, past a forlorn looking reception desk.

The bottom line is that two thirds of the third floor workout area is now gone! The floor space that Seattle Executive Fitness has given back to its landlord used to include:

• its large free weight workout area
• its hammer strength workout area
• its selectorized weight machine circuit training area
• its previous stretching and calisthenics floor
• its large kickboxing studio at the southwest corner of the third floor

What remains is a cramped, disorganized, shambles that has three sections: a small stretching/toning floor area; a cramped and claustrophic cardio training area, part of which has a few plate selectorized circuit training machines, but not enough to be useful; and a new smaller free weights room which was previously the Cybex treadmill room with HDTVs. Please check back soon for more details about everything that is happening, and what it likely means for SEF members and the what seems like the impending demise of this once palatable gym that only needed minor improvements to be a first class facility. It is just sad, sad, sad, that this gym's management has never listened to its customers, and is instead going in the opposite direction of what the majority of the gym's customers have wanted for years. Unfortunately, this sad turn of events doesn't come as too much of a surprise really, since the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, has run every gym he has managed over the years into the ground, and into one form of ruination or another.

Here's a photo of the wall blocking off what was once two thirds or more of the third floor workout facility at the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location.

Seattle Executive Fitness Entrance Becomes a Weight Watchers

There are indicators everywhere that Seattle Executive Fitness owner Merle Gregg is in dire financial straits and is taking desperate measures to save money as he gradually destroys a workout facility that was once a pretty nice place. When Seattle Executive Fitness opened years ago as AllStar Fitness (now bankrupt), the gym had a street presence with a separate first floor entrance way and member lounge area. Over the course of the past six months or so, Seattle Executive Fitness owner Merle Gregg has allowed the landlord at 509 Olive Way to reclaim multiple portions of the gym's space for lease to other tenants. There doesn't seem to be any reasonable conclusion to reach other than financial desperation by Merle Gregg, trying to reduce his monthly rental expense obligation as his failing business hemorrhages cash each month. Ironically, the more he scrimps and neglects the core of his business, the workout facility and services, the less attractive his gym becomes to its current members and the prospective new members his business needs in order to stay afloat. 

Many months ago, Merle Gregg reduced the size of the main third floor workout area. The space Merle Gregg gave back to the Olive Way landlord used to be half of the stretching and personal training area. That area has now been taken over by a florist shop that also used to have a street level presence on the first floor, but is now only accessible through the third floor atrium area that now seems to be a public part of the building. It is hard to imagine how that florist shop is going to survive without a street level retail presence.

Over the course of the past couple of years, dozens upon dozens of consumer reviews of Seattle Executive Fitness on yelp.com have given Merle Gregg suggestions on how to make his gyms the best they can be. Merle Gregg gives the appearance that he has simply ignored the suggestions provided him by the customers who generate the revenue his business needs to succeed. Instead of staying focused on building and maintaining a quality place to workout, Merle Gregg has either ignored customer suggestions, or done things that seem deliberately self destructive to his business. It is amazing how many members of his gyms over the years have said that if he just put effort into making his gym a good place to workout, with honest business practices, it would go from a place whose customers complain on yelp.com to a thriving fitness center that would be the prime choice of people who work and live in downtown Seattle. 

511 Olive Way will soon be a Weight Watcher's franchise

Slow progress on the Weight Watcher's franchise leasehold improvements.

Seattle Executive Fitness Deterioration Continues

It seems like every aspect of Seattle Executive Fitness continues to deteriorate. Every aspect of the neglect gives the appearance that the gym's owner, Merle Gregg, may be in serious financial trouble, with his gyms on the very of bankruptcy and closure. The list of obvious problems, some that have existed for a long period of time, and others that are new, is long and disturbing. Here are some of the more recent events that should give existing members pause, and should deter any prospective member from joining this disreputable, fraud plagued, establishment. Here is a partial of list of some of the recently noticed problems:

• the Olive Way location no longer has a separate entrance.
• the Olive Way location has been made smaller.
• the Olive Way location no longer provides easy access to the climbing wall area.
• the Olive Way location walls now display numerous threatening and disrespectful signs
• the gyms are dirty and don't seem to ever get cleaned.
• the equipment sets at the gyms are incomplete, and poorly if ever maintained.
• in a desperate attempt to save money, the owner has threatened to stop providing towel service.
• the gym's numerous fraudulent billing practices continue, and continue to be reported.
• the gyms's advertised prepaid plan offers are not honored.

There are many other very problems worth highlighting. This list will be updated in the future. 

Watching Snowy Television While Doing Cardio at Seattle "Executive" Fitness

The following analog television snow is what members often see when they try to watch a little television as you work hard to get in a few thousand strides of cardio training at Seattle Executive Fitness. The skimpy owner doesn't exactly provide an Executive number of television channels to watch anyway. There are only about a dozen basic cable television channels provided on the cardio theater televisions at Seattle Executive Fitness. Sometimes the management seems to rotate a few of the channels, but most often, they don't even have all the major broadcast channels available.  This is the lack of quality that Seattle Executive Fitness seems to believe it can pass off as "Executive". 

Worn Out Cybex Arm Curl (Biceps) Machine

When Merle Gregg first took over the gym at 511 Olive Way, the Cybex Arm Curl, bicep, training machine was in medium shape. The arm pads were showing some wear, but they were still okay. Over the course of the past year, the arm wrests on the Cybex Arm Curl machine have become very worn.

Despite repeated requests from many members about this machine, Merle Gregg and his staff have not repaired it. The first photograph of it below, shows its condition a year ago. The second photograph of it below shows it condition recently, after Merle Gregg and his staff crammed the machine into the area that used to be the stretching room. Notice all the cracks in the arm rest. One really has to wonder why the people who run Seattle Executive Fitness won’t invest in replacing that worn out part of that machine.

Cybex Arm Curl machine a year ago, less worn

Cybex Arm Curl, with very worn arm rest pad

Closeup of worn out arm pad on Cybex Arm Curl (bicep) machine.

Seattle Executive Fitness Isn't "Executive" Enough for Professional Quality Signage

Apparently, Merle Gregg, the owner of Seattle Executive Fitness, is too cheap to install professional signage at his establishment. The signage at his "Executive" club doesn't seem very "Executive".

Update: The Seattle Executive Fitness location on Olive Way in Seattle doesn't even have its own external entrance anymore! Currently, Seattle Executive Fitness members must enter through the lobby of the Medical Dental Building. Merle Gregg appears to be in such deep financial trouble that he has given up portions of the space he rents from the company's landlord as a last ditch effort to cut back on costs and expenses before the complete collapse of his gyms. Be forewarned before you join this gym. The experience at this gym is beyond one's worst nightmares of the extent to which gyms can be predatory, unscrupulous, businesses.