The enshitification hallmarks are not cute
When it was announced that they were bringing "back" early entry, I said to myself wow this is actually super needed, the warmup is simply not long enough that's great. After a couple of days at my studio of people not exactly knowing about it and/or the coach running over (so "early" time going from 5-10 minutes to 2-3) and people just standing in the lobby still, the coaches started to be a bit more vocal about the gym being open and ready. I thought that was weird, like leave it up to people??
This week, our studio added self-sign in tablets (ETA: you can pick station, number, and if you're subbing a station). They're not without problems; if you're not pre registered for the class, it's faster for you to take your phone out and sign up, then refresh the tablet, than it is for the SA to look you up. I immediately thought wait, this is a way to reduce SA workload. This week, the coaches have also started getting somewhat aggressive about early entry, basically pushing people into the studio. I'm naturally a cynic, but it seems the only reasonable conclusion is the studio is norming us to a) signing in ourselves and b) not loitering in the lobby so that when they reduce SA headcount, we're already used to the experience. I'm grateful for the extra warm up time, but I can't even really appreciate it because I'm distracted by the fact that it doesn't seem so much altruistic as marketing and cost-reduction focused. Blerg.
Every studio I've been to that has closed has had the same horsemen. Brand collaborations with food and beverage companies, a new but more expensive challenge, self sign in, reduced SA headcount. It's just really sad. Meanwhile membership rates go up. I did have a brief chat with one of the SAs I know decently well before class, kind of vaguely gestured at the sign in tab, and unprompted she said yeah I'm already looking elsewhere.