In the USA, an Albany supermarket, New York, has entered a surprising partnership with the YMCA. The result of this partnership is a free gym, inside the supermarket, that customers can attend alongside getting their groceries.
After a recent revamp, the Hannaford store had a large amount of extra space, and so was a prime area for the development, the brainchild of a meeting between the Hannaford store, their local YMCA, and Capital District Physician’s Health Plan.
One of the most cited reasons for people not exercising enough is a lack of time and the effort required that we often need to spend elsewhere in our busy lifestyles.
Therefore, combining a gym with the local supermarket, where we all usually flock to once a week for our groceries, is a brilliant idea. It means one of the chores of the week can easily coincide with exercise, and gives people less of an excuse not to get in a weekly workout.
The supermarket, Hannaford, insists that the gym, complete with treadmills, bikes, and a fully outfitted zumba room, is not part of some marketing campaign, and there are currently no plans to install a gym in any other of their stores. The fact that the gym is completely free is also likely a large contributing factor to its success.
Dave Farrell, the store manager, admitted: “Obviously we’ve had people use it who weren’t customers and have decided to shop in the store. It’s definitely a win for us but that wasn’t the goal.”
Obesity and other lifestyle related diseases, especially diabetes, are becoming more and more common, and it is this kind of movement that would help to push us back in the right direction. Hopefully this form of partnership could spread, and the future could see supermarket gyms not only across the USA, but here in the UK too.
