Playing your cards right

Over the weekend I finally made the first move. Honestly, I had been putting it off long enough and it was time to get down to business. I decided it was high time to put some regular exercise in my weekly schedule and join a gym.
So on Saturday I did a search for gyms located near my office which would be open early enough for me to fit in a morning workout (I know, a lofty goal indeed!). Luckily I found one that is not only near my office, but one that has another branch nearby home, and they allow members to use all their branches freely. I figure this will be good for working out on the weekends.

I visited the one near my home on Saturday afternoon and took a look. After a short tour by one of their staff, I met with the manager who explained the membership system to me, i.e. where the other locations are, the free towel with every visit, that sort of thing. I told him everything sounded great, but I would visit the location near my office during the week and then decide. He said that would be no problem, although he hoped I would return to his branch when I signed up.

Today I went at 8:00 am to see what the gym near my office was like, choosing that time to see how crowded it might be, and thus how easy it would be to get a treadmill or bicycle, etc. I was happy to find only about 4 or 5 people there, and the staff who gave me the tour said that was common for weekday mornings. Then I met with the staff member who was supposed to give me the spiel about the membership system, but I told her that I had already gotten the details from my visit to the other location, and would probably join over the weekend when I had more time to fill out the forms.

It was at that point that I was told, very kindly, that by all means I was welcome to join from any location, but they would be very happy if I joined from their branch.

"Membership is the same no matter where I join, right?" I inquired.
"Certainly. You can use any of the locations no matter where you join. However, maybe I can talk to the manager here. He might be willing to offer you a slight discount for joining at this location."

*Ah, the cards were on the table!*

What else could I do but play along? Afterall, I truly was planning to join at the location near my house over the weekend. "Well, I'm planning to join this weekend. Here is my phone number, so have your manager call me in the evening before the weekend if he would like to offer something of that nature."

I figure I have nothing to lose no matter where I join, but they seem to have something to gain... so I might as well have something to gain by being persuaded one way or the other. Actually, since I will use the location near my office more often, I might as well join there, and I was quite happy to hear the suggestion to do so.

In any case, I should be able to remain active over the coming fall and winter months, and the gym (both locations) seem to be very pleasant.