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At Promise Communispace we’re seeing this strategy to turn retail into more of an experience happening across sectors; it therefore seems logical that supermarkets should follow suit.
However, a lot of gyms do seem to be struggling, partly as a result of expensive real estate in city centres (from which Tesco would be exempt), but also due to the capital intensive machinery which requires frequent renewal.

If Tesco is to adopt a strategy of creating fitness hubs in its larger locations, it’s going to need to offer a new experience that will excite people enough to want to combine exercising with their weekly grocery shop. It could, for example, invest in technology. Not only to create training programmes that could be easily updated, avoiding the need to replace machinery so often, but also perhaps to provide a click, exercise and collect service. But will that be enough?
Ikea has chosen to locate its stores outside city centres where it has room to show and stock its full range of furniture. It has low prices and an enormous selection of products making the motivations for visiting it similar to those for visiting Tesco, and yet it struggles with getting customers to visit frequently. When you consider the savings that you can make on furniture compared with groceries, is offering the convenience of working out and shopping in one location going to be enough to lure people out of town?
We watch with interest!