Kosher Gym
It's all over the blogosphere but I don't mind adding to the pile-on. Yes, this one's enough to rouse me from my summer slumber (which has been completely fantastic but that's another story).
The lowdown: Kosher Gym was sold to a national fitness company and is making changes that make it no longer kosher. The following are some examples:
1. The staff and advertising are no longer tznius.
2. There are televisions on premises.
3. The gym is now open on shabbos.
I'm sure there are other changes that frum members find objectionable. Now I have no problem with the takeover in principle. Mergers and acquisitions are part of life. However the gym is not refunding frum members who want to switch gyms because of changes they find objectionable.
This is utterly and completely incomprehensible to me. Besides for being morally reprehensible, from a business standpoint it is just plain stupid. This is a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. Kosher Gym by virtue of its name sold itself as a place where Orthodox Jews could come work out in an environment they can feel comfortable with.
Now you may say that the gym is still sex segregated. The problem with that is that Kosher Gym did not simply advertise as a sex segregated gym. They advertise as kosher which is more than just sex segregated. Lucille Roberts is a women's only gym but they do not present themselves as a kosher gym. For example, their advertising features scantily clad women and always has.
If the people who run this gym have a shred of integrity (or common sense) they would start mailing out refund checks now. The thousands of dollars that would cost them now are nothing compared with the loss they will suffer when disgruntled members band together and sue. For those of you who are just small time guys and don't have the money or know how to put that together, small claims court is a very inexpensive and easy alternative.
Labels: kosher gym fraud frum jews
posted by brianna @ 8:47 PM
9 Comments:
Sue on what grounds?
Breach of contract.
or those of you who are just small time guys and don't have the money or know how to put that together, small claims court is a very inexpensive and easy alternative.
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Condescending thing, aren't you! And what legal expertise do you have that enables you to give legal advice? In short, who do you think you are, little girl?
I successfully sued someone in small claims court. It is a court specifically designed for every day people who need to sue for relatively small amounts of money (where I live the max is $3K but it varies). I got my documentation together and did some googling about the process and was fine.
I recommend this link for anyone involved with the kosher gym fiasco:
http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/smallclaims/index.shtml
You're the one who's being condescending by calling me a little girl. I was simply pointing out that you don't need to hire a fancy lawyer and spend a ton of money in order to sue.
Since I am not a lawyer, nothing on my blog constitutes legal advice. However the information I provided may be useful for people who want to know where to start.
Score one for bri !
P.S. Welcome back, keep on enjoying your summer :)
That's very interesting. I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it.
Interesting situation. I wonder what their lose vs. gain ratio is for no longer really being a Kosher gym.
LS"D
I am not understendink far vus a kosher gym! De yingeleit in myne koilel ken outrun eny shygetz fin der Olimpiks - azoy vi dey are alvays runnink fin der cops oder fin de fires dey set in de warehouses! End dey ken lift enythink end trow very well a ball azoy vi dey trow rocks at carz yeder Shabbos! Iz dere besser exercize fin dis?
End our gerlz is alvays runnink fest fin der tznius patrol end der moralz skvad on hecher heelz end pletformz so dey iz lernink how to belenze demselves wile doink ayroibic exercize!
Liftink far der mydlach iz kalled shopliftink; inzere sem girls in vybelach ken lift a whole Prada veddink outfit fin Bergdorf'z by buyink it mit a phoney credit kart end den returnink it on an emmesdige one! Never mind det I got girlz in myne sem det can lift a whole case Joyvin fin outside der likker store ven der truck is unloadink!
Besser it should close dis gym!
It would seem that "breach of contract" would apply only if the gym's membership contract specifically mentioned things like staff being dressed tznius and no televisions. More to the point, in order to successfully sue for misrepresenting a gym as "kosher", there would have to be some sort of standard to apply for what, exactly, 'kosher' is when it comes to a gym. Hint: there isn't one. National fitness companies have herds of lawyers who think about all these things leading up to a deal. I'm sure they thought about this.
See, a "kosher" gym means different things to different people, depending on what flavor of Orthodoxy one adheres to. I'm sure everyone can agree that it should be sex-segregated, IOW, men and women shouldn't be working out together. But after that, what makes a gym "kosher" or "unkosher"? Exactly how is the staff no longer dressed tznius? Does it mean they are wearing tight leggings that show private areas, or just that they wear sleeves above the elbows? Big difference, IMO. And televisions? Firstly, televisions are not inherently unkosher. If the TVs are tuned to get only CNN and the Food Network, etc, there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
If several people have the same issue with this company, that small claims court won't hear it- a small claim multiplied by X people becomes a large claim. I think it's both a losing battle and a stupid issue.
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