As several Central Florida Winn-Dixie stores transition from the Winn-Dixie brand to be converted to Aldi locations, some space is tending to be leftover: between 20,000 and 25,000 square feet per location, according to recent coverage by the Orlando Business Journal, which reports that growing fitness center chain Planet Fitness plans to fill in these gaps with new health clubs.
“Planet Fitness is targeting Winn-Dixie to Aldi conversion sites to become new locations across Central Florida and the state, including St. Cloud, Port Orange and Leesburg,” the Business Journal said in a post on X.
“Planet Fitness was founded in 1992, in Dover, NH,” the Planet Fitness website tells the story. “In the beginning, it operated much like every other gym in its small hometown and catered to the same small percentage of the population in the U.S. who worked out and belonged to a health club. PF’s owners quickly recognized that there was a greater opportunity to serve a much larger segment of the population. They asked themselves, ‘Why does 80-85% of the population not belong to a gym?’ The answer? First-time and casual gym users didn’t like the ‘look at me’ attitudes and behaviors found in typical gyms, and they didn’t want to have to pay a lot of money to give fitness a try.”
From this brainstorm was born a health club franchise that focuses on offering an un-intimidating atmosphere at an affordable price. And it’s doing it and more and more locations across the country.
Stay tuned for more details on Planet Fitness locations opening in St. Cloud, Port Orange and Leesburg.
You can keep up with all things Planet Fitness by following @planetfitness on Instagram.