The Decline of GNC...What Happened?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- GNC has filed for bankruptcy. This video explains the reasons behind it while taking at their unique history.
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This dude does a full college presentation every week on the history companies. Absolutely love it man!
He probably makes bank! The per-view add revenue for his demographic is really strong.
I actually used a few videos at school but cut it so it looked like a presentation and cut the audio out and ended up getting an A
Hope he does well ad wise. He could pay for actual college with that.
@@thething7484 so you plagiarised?
@@thething7484 That's kinda shitty
I’m a store associate at GNC and I totally agree with your evaluation. I would have also mentioned the fact that our CEO Ken Martindale gave himself a $2.2 million bonus right before filing Ch 11 bankruptcy. Gnc pays minimum wage, constantly reduce sales commissions, and threaten to fire employees that don’t sell “enough” memberships or subscriptions each week. Terrible leadership was a huge factor in all this
Funny thing you mentioned about Gold Card membership. Just about 4 years ago I went shopping for GNC . Before I made the purchase, they asked me a membership for $25.00. And the worst part they don't take no as an answer. So I walk out without the purchase. I was wondering how can a store survive with a strong arm tactics by forcing you to get a gold GNC card. Not everyone go for it and may lose some customer.
Got the same email in my scoop! GNC is rigged!
My boss was great, but i had some shitty SSMs before him so i feel you. Honestly im not that upset about losing my job. I'm tired of selling pro and auto deliver to people who dont need those useless programs.
Sounds exactly like my internet service provider, or Wells Fargo during their heyday. They put pressure on the low-level employees to jack up short-term profits by squeezing customers or committing straight-up fraud. It never works out in the long term. But just like taking on debt to finance stock buybacks, it's all about the short-term profits for the people in the head office while the rest of the company falls apart.
TheOneBadAssGamer Honestly my manager’s dope but the company is so bad
I worked at GNC in 2013 and I can tell you why it's failing. The employees were pressured to only sell, (and up sell,) certain products. Most, if not all of which, we did not even get commission for. In turn if we wanted to keep our jobs we had to pressure the customers and seeing it from a customers point of view, who wants to deal with that when they can just go online.
Yes, it was extremely competitive
Same thing happened to a relative of mine but she worked at JC penny, she would be forced by the boss to pressure every single customer into buying a in-store credit card. She hated it
@@christopherfaulkner8514 I like you!
I know what you mean.. I went to get something I wanted and the person I talk to told me he had a better product. But it was not as good as he made like it to be.. it was just to sell it to get rid of it.. they tell you a lot of lie to sell the product in the store.. I try different item and got no results. So many fake pills..
@@christopherfaulkner8514 that I know. I use to sell guns. But I am retired now.. yes I have known the trick to
But I want lie to the customer.. I believe in Jesus Christ. He my Lord and Savior.. I love helping people and I still sell a lot of gun. By being honest..so other can still sell if you being honest..
Anyone else think the GNC logo looks a lot like the GMC logo? I'm talking font/color, not just that they share 2/3 of the same letters. Wonder if that was deliberate 🤔
That's why some people don't know about it cause they think gnc and gmc are the samr
@@Johanisnotreal I remember going to the Mall and seeing a GNC store, I begged my mom to go in there because I thought it will be full of trucks, I was wrong and my mom still laugh about that to this day
@@nickrustyson8124 haha so it's not just me
Nick Rustyson Yup same here lol
@@nickrustyson8124 bruh I didn't know gnc was a vitamin place till gnc products were place at a Local Riteaid
I have worked as a store manager at GNC for a little over three years. Let me tell you something! Everything is extremely overpriced that almost every managers working there buys their gym supplements online LOL even with their 30% employee discount and premium pro membership. That just tells you just how damn overpriced everything is. You can get the same supplements online for less than 70% of the value you’d find at GNC. I’m glad they are going bankrupt. They pay minimum wages here in New Hampshire at $7 an hour that’s right they pay $7 an hour. RSD are also always threatening to fire employees for not shoving the pro membership that doesn’t seem to save anyone’s money. But how can you threaten someone you’re paying $7 an hour? Even with commissions you make on a really RARE good day you make at best $9 or $10 an hour it’s just not worth it when you can flip burgers for $10-12 without your boss threatening to fire your ass.
The fault is GNC and GNC alone. Not Amazon, not the pandemic. It’s GNC. Even if you compare their prices with local supplements store. It’s hella overpriced! Horrible!
And goal dependent, you can find better quality/stronger stuff at the local supplement store. For your regular letter vitamin, Vitamin Shoppe brand has a good reputation for price.
Yeah it's over priced cuz I was buying Zyflumed Amazon after I seen the price in the GNC store. I used to have the "Gold" members card but they stopped accepting those lmbo. I always felt like the cashier was underpaid but they were always so nice and so helpful, I wish this company would have given their employees that money instead of buying back their stocks. Stupid and greedy ✌💗 I feel sorry for the ppl who don't have a job now not GNC corporates.
1 16 ounce can of Bang energy was $3.99 at the one I went to. However they also ran some sort of special where it was 2 for $5, so the special wasn't too bad but $3.99 is a little overpriced for Bang energy. I can get them at Albertsons/Vons/Safeway/Whatever The Hell Else They're Called for $2.50.
thank you for telling me that wanted a input from someone who works or used to work at GNC
Exactly, I used to work there as well, someone would come by for a Bang or protein bar and they would still be mad I didn’t pitch a pro membership. Like bro they are just trying to get a quick snack 🤦🏽♂️
I'm amazed they lasted as long as they did considering the outrageous prices they charged for things.
facts
They never really had any competition up until online ordering became so mainstream.
They charge retarded prices. Over $100 for 30 serving protein? Like wtf I’ve not seen that anywhere online or even Walmart/ sams club. They just are dumb as hell. My protein sells over 150 serving bags of protein and with their discount u pay like $80. I went In once and never went back. Even told the guy bro this shit $30 more than what the company actually sells it for and left.
agree. Over priced and mostly garbage products. The Vitamin Shop is 100 times better. Plus they never adapted to the internet, stuck to long with thinking brick and motor was all they needed.
Man ain't that the truth.
GNC is the GameStop/Blockbuster of supplements. Never liked GNC, always felt expensive and their variety is made for a 90’s body builder.
yeah buy one product and they recommend 2 more to "stack" with it. Harass you about joining membershp as well.
JohnConnor333 I use to work at gnc and they push this so much. They make you watch videos on their store tablet that guide you on ways to push extra items with the customers purchase and how to haggle them into signing up with their membership. The commission was nice though I’d make like $300-$400 a week just in commission on top of my paycheck (being a manager/working 40 hour weeks/high traffic location)
"always felt expensive and their variety is made for a 90’s body builder" Not true I never once saw steroids in a GNC.
Been there a couple of times, never like the atmosphere.
They don’t make anymore of the apple pie quest bars :,(
The GNC in my local mall is literally having a “going out of business” sale rn
@@DamianoftheRyans calm down
@Arthur Wall A building closed by order of our governor and when reopened it will be a concentration centre for the new homeless.
Probably still too expensive
Quick get the broteinz for sum gainz
Since they going under can we steal to help out
The stores I’ve been to honestly seem cramped, like there’s just too much stuff and not enough space.
Hell yeah i agree.. i live in DC ..cramped as hell. With the virus going on there is no point in going.
I realized that in almost every dead mall, the stores you will most likely find are GNC and Bath and Body Works.
Lol you just described my nearby practically dead mall! It’s true though! 😂
i’d argue that all of the remaining thriving malls will universally have those two shops too....
Or a footlocker or a journeys
Weirdly enough, Bath and Body Works is always crowded in the mall near me
@@Saturn890 same here!
Their supplements are way too expensive and they try to upsell you hard.
The quality isn't terrible, but online shopping and Vitamin Shoppe have been killing them.
Yes I would sometimes window shop then but then online instead cheaper :/
A weeb like you probably doesn't have the testosterone to build muscle.
@@mrfeelgoodful Wow, you're a real loser aren't you
@@mrfeelgoodful Damn bro, how do you stay safe living so close to the edge?
@@adamknight5089 How does that make me a "loser"? It's proven mentally slow/awkward people like poorly animated and poorly Written cartoons.
Worked here when I was a kid, and I always thought to myself - “I doubt this place will last…”
Glad to know that it is getting thoroughly blown out!
Every time I went into one some pushy salesman was trying to get me to buy 10 more bottles of various energy pills
Never had that problem. Maybe it’s just that I’ve only been going to GNC for a couple months but usually it’s a in and out thing
Agree.. there salespeople are knowledgeable but way too aggressive
That happened to me years ago, I was looking for a protein powder to make shakes. I got recommended one from them and when I got home to open it up, it was like 45% of the canister.
Former employee here. They train you to be over aggressive and stack as much onto a purchase as possible. We had averages to meet on top of the commision so thats the resson why so many are so aggressive with trying to sell in house products. Never sat well with me personally and never did it
I haven't been in one since I was a child in the 80s but I remember what you're talkin about as my dad would go in the store and encounter pushy salespeople plus I'm a kid I hated the smell of those stores
"It was a leveraged buyout." Oh, I see where this is headed!
At this point it may as well be a synonym for 'death' so far as businesses are concerned
@@Jim-so3zm ✓
Jim tell it like it is Jim💯
Leveraged buy out
The currency of psychotically greedy capitalists for the last 40 years
I stopped shopping YEARS ago at GNC. I don't care for their high pressure sales tactics the minute you walk in the door..
The stupidest thing they ever had was that membership thing where you paid a fee every year, but you only a discount on merchandise on ONE DAY a month. Never was worth it.
And even then, Amazon was/is still cheaper...
They harassed you into buying it! Never could explain what it would do!
Yes I bought that membership once. They made me feel like I had to buy it! The guy was throwing in free things and he said I've never gone this far for a client I'm doing all this for you.
@@rickyb2673 as someone who worked here, we kind of have to, its literally one of our "sales" pillars, sorry about that :/
You weren't really saving any kind of money anyways. I remember when they would charge you anywhere from 69.99-79.99 on a tub of Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein (5lbs) if you weren't a "Gold Member". So then it kinda forced you to buy their membership in order for you to pay the regular fair market value of 59.99 and even then Bodybuilding.com or Amazon sold them for even cheaper. Lol!
These days, whenever a youtuber goes through a dead/dying mall with their camera, you often see a GNC and a Bath and Body Works. That's all you need to know.
Ehh, not really that funny of a joke. The japan fiasco happend ages so it's just a tired joke at this point.
The largest mall in my city has a Bath and body with a huge line. I guess it’s different out there
You forgot the Spirit Halloween store.
GNC, Bath and Body, and Victoria's Secret: the holy trinity of mall stores that refuse to die
@Andrews cool That's not very cool of you to be so rude :(
“I’m pretty sure they’ll get through it”
He said the same about Toys R Us
Well , they are still existing... In Canada
As a GNC Store manager I can confirm we're too expensive and all we do is upsale and upcharge and harass EVERYONE that comes in for autos and pros! I'm super happy we're closing!
Agree I'm happy and sad cuz I would steal from u guys just to have a bargain and feel good about gnc
Just like every retail stores in America
Won’t you be...without a job though?
So it was just the gamestop of nutrition and dietary supplements?
Wow.
I can tell you why they failed. They CHARGE TOO MUCH. Kind of skipped over this important factor in this video.
Many dont; you just wind up alienating a good chunk of society that sees it for what it is
Granted, apple vendor on the corner selling them for $1,000,000 a pop, "it only takes one", but you have to have a stable bottomline or loyal clientele to stay afloat. If you cant draw in new blood because your numbers are too high, you're going to struggle.
I walked into a local GNC, saw the prices, had an associate try to sell me stuff, and I walked out never to enter again.
@Zachary Rugar Sadly only a few overpriced pharmacy's exist around here. Most small business is dead except a hardware store and a few food truck like setups that can do business on the fly.
@@Your-Least-Favorite-Stranger Very accurate customer experience.
Did you even pay attention? They have been making lots of money this whole time. So pricing isnt the problem
@@xdrowssap4456 Actually, the products work. It's about the effort put in to sticking out a routine, which is why you don't/didn't see a result.
If anything, they shouldn't be pushing products on the merit that most of the things people want, they can just have by taking legitimate advice, not supplements.
Too much processed food here in America, too much room for making poor health decisions.
They just want you to believe that the ONLY way to achieve your goals is through supplementation, which is wrong. Not that supplements are the answer.
I worked for GNC for almost five years. Started as a Sales Associate and left as a Store Manager between 2011 and 2016. During that time we had amazing highs. When I left GNC I stopped going into stores to stock up on supplements, as did a lot of people, and online sales really affected store operations. I got away from shopping with GNC during the pandemic and opted with getting my supplements through the supplement companies as they were offering phenomenal deals. Fast forward to 2024, after not paying attention to GNC news in years, I attempted to go to multiple GNC’s and majority were closed. The few that I found were small, lacked a variety of products and the in-store atmosphere was completely different. It forced me to go to Vitamin Shoppe instead.
I’ll always have fond memories of the heyday of GNC and my time there.
I’m surprised GM didn’t say anything about the fact that the GNC logo is basically the GMC logo
Exactly
They cannot sue since they are in vastly different industries. If GNC started selling cars and tried to pass it of as GM then they would get sued
That confused me so much as a child
I have always thought that
I thought so too. In fact, I first thought it was the logo for the creator of the Delorean.
“Choose one that compares in size”
Me, a Floridian: Vitamin Shoppe
Lil_Junky63 we also have Vitamin Shoppe in Maryland
we have vitamin shoppe in IL i think
Seen em in OK
VS is far superior.
They also have it in VA, but it only has 785 locations, and GNC has about 7000.
One of the most predatory stores I have ever been in. I was swooped down upon by some unhealthy, middle aged guy pushing whatever was emphasized at the sales meeting that probably took place each morning 15 minutes before the store opened. Oh and 90% of their products did nothing.
Lies again? Goal Check
In all my years of going to malls, I've never seen a GNC with any customers in it, so I've always wondered how they were getting by. Now I know that they're *not* "getting by". Just based on how quiet their stores are, I don't think they're going to make it.
You are EXACTLY right... and it deters you from wanting to go in there because you know the people working there will immediately descend on you like a vulture on a carcass.
The one I used to visit back c. 2011 had customers, but I don't know that they ever bought much.I knew the manager (who lived two states away...yikes...) and when we'd shoot the shit he'd point out that most people coming in there are looking for basically either a miracle pill or crystal meth... (something that will give them energy and substantial weight loss in like 2 weeks without any effort on their part).
i worked for GNC my store shut down during the bankruptcy. we made profit but not enough profit apparently i saw on average about 25 customers a day who all spent on average over $60. it was very rare to have more than 2 customers in the store at a time.
The only 2 people I know who shop there buy their weight loss trash- mostly shakes and those vinegar pills
Everything in GNC is super overpriced that’s the problem.
Yea
Like GMC
Not really man, people are just cheap
That's a mispreception from 15 years ago I own several GNCs 100% of the natiional brands we stock are are with in 5% of Amazon pricing every day
Way over priced
There was a GNC in my local mall that closed about 2 years ago. It had a scale in the front that would say "Have you checked your weight today?" every time someone walked past. 20 years ago, it was clear and easy to understand. When the store closed, you only knew what it said because you'd heard it 1 million times. That scale is still in the empty store, but it's turned off now.
The main problem was actually, when people went in to buy some Vitamin B, they accidentally bought a midsize SUV.
💀💀
yeah I hate that, I have three of them in my driveway.
I worked at GNC for around a year and never knew what it stood for. Everyone knew they wouldn’t last long with how pushy salespeople were told to be and the price for most items was beyond reasonable.
Amazon has to be a big reason for a lot of companies failing these days.
Lies again? Gold Cup Gain City Grab Car
Hey Company Man, I find it interesting that some of the companies that you have documented have successful change in management stories while others have abysmal change in management stories. You've covered a number of companies and stories. Have you considered covering an overall trend of what has worked and what hasn't, maybe with categorizing the success/failure stories by type? It might be a good video idea, and you've got to be practically an expert on this kind of thing from the large amount of research that you've done on this. It would seem like a good case study.
Good idea on principle, but management is so circumstantial that it can't really be compared beyond the basics. Who could've predicted smartphones and internet would become as powerful as it did, or that the titanic would sink after some people lined up to invest in it.
Good management is discovered 20 years later, when you realize that that insane guy at the top actually prepared for a cataclysm nobody thought possible.
If there's any common theme throughout these videos, it's that leaders who actually care about the fate of their company are the ones who generally succeed. Way too many of these corporate types only care about improving the short-term profitability of the companies they're running in order to make a quick buck for the owners and investors, with little regard for the well-being of the rest of the company long term. In this case, focusing on GNC's stock price didn't seem to be related at all to the future of the company, just about making investors happy and/or cashing in while they could and letting the company die in the process by not addressing the debt issue. Managers that cared about the company wouldn't have done this.
Raskolnikov70
You are articulating the evil business plan of a leveraged buy out
- Over reliance on malls.
- Cater to the 80's action star physique which is passe.
- High profile athletes claiming their failed PED tests due to stuff they bought at GNC.
- My super market has similar stuff: whey powder, creatine, etc.
@Rue U exactly. Homeboy overthought it. That's all it is. Their sbt is 30%-40% high than online. The internet killed then off. Real simple.
The first point you made is the only accurate one. the remaining ones are irrelevant and reflect your own insecurities.
cheaper online prices are what killed them.
A couple of things you didn't mention. #1 Everything they sold was ridiculously overpriced. You could find the same products elsewhere for half the price. #2 Tons of smaller supplement stores started popping up, many inside gyms, with much better prices. #3 The internet is how most people buy their supplements now, again at a much lower price.
Clearly the real answer is that their downfall began when Alex Jones created his Super Male Vitality supplements.
GNC was turning the frogs gay
Alex cornered the market with Brain Force
Blaise Good one.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Based megumin
I personally just buy all my supplements with my other groceries at Target. There’s no need for anything fancy
Hope you don’t have any Rainbow Light products from Target. They’re getting sued for dishonesty now.
It also didn't help that GNC wasnt selling the good stuff that body building dot com sold back when I lifted heavy. That and ordering from the websites for some of the more extreme stuff I bought that GNC also didn't carry. GNC always had giant weightlifter dudes selling me stuff that were on trenbolone and never bought their own stuff from GNC.
That's like buying an iPhone at Walmart. I'd rather go to the apple store
Same. I never had any need to set foot in a GNC because I can get supplements at other stores for a fraction of the price.
Yup
Been working at a franchise location for a couple years now at a one of the more successful locations out of all the stores. Don’t have to sell stupid memberships and we run better promos than corporate. Boss pays decent and treats us very well. Commissions are plentiful for us and it’s a fun easy going job if you know even the basics of supplements.
If you can find a franchise location with an owner who knows what they are doing it can be a great job.
As soon as I was about to get off TH-cam, you uploaded 😂
Same
Yeah I hate when that happens.
Same
I felt that
people were getting tired of being ripped off. That’s what happened.
Excellent video! I was an investor in GNC for years and I can say that the biggest reason for the company failure was the incompetent management. Retailing is a tough business to start with, thus to have some modest success you need an excellent management and GNC had a terrible management. Really terrible capital allocation. They leveraged up to buy back stock at high prices and then they struggled for years to try to pay off the debt. They started selling their valuable assets, brought in Chinese investors via Goldman Sachs but it was simply too late.
Anyway, I have learnt a lot through this expensive lesson.
Has a company ever gone down like this without being in a ton of debt?
Leveraged Buyout = 💀
Hj
Take a drink when a leveraged buyout is mentioned.
yeah, blackberry has
Stock buybacks are just another version of the same leveraged-buyout-type con game. The people running the company are getting paid in stock options, so it benefits them directly to borrow money at low interest rates in order to jack up the stock price in the short-term while not worrying about the long-term health of the company. They didn't care about the debt because they never cared about what happened to the hundreds of stores or thousands of employees, only about cashing out before the stock price crashes.
I was cautiously optimistic when he said that the new CEO had a history of turning companies around. We've seen countless times how a new CEO in that situation is a vulture. Then he got to the leveraged buyout and the stock repurchases, when the debt needed to be paid off first -_- Now it seems like anyone who builds a reputation of turning companies around is just waiting for a good opportunity to be a vulture.
One of the last times I went into a GNC was 2016. I was buying creatine but when I saw the price I was on my way out. The lady working there stopped me and said she’ll price match if I buy it. She seemed pretty desperate and I could tell they were on the path to bankruptcy from there.
I always would mix up *GNC* and *GMC,* even though they're in _entirely_ different markets. The (title) font even seems identical!
Same
Yeah I’ve never understood why they do that
"Knowledgable employees" is quite the reach
Mostly Bro science was started by GNC... lol.
It is all relative. Because of the incentive to push the chain’s own brands, sales people know more about the GNC label products than, say, someone working at Target does about the supplements they carry. This doesn’t make GNC sales guys fitness advisors, of course.
What do you expect? PhD level information from a retail worker? Gain some perspective. This is why our country is the dumpster fire it is.
@@rothtiberiuscain7589 You can always move to a different country. I mean if yours is a "DuMpStEr FiRe"
Their biggest mistake was partnering with Rite Aid and then closing their standalone stores that were better managed than Rite Aid. Don’t ever partner with a bad drugstore chain that doesn’t have knowledgeable people!
Has anyone noticed how GNC almost looks like GMC? Vitamin and trucks sound great together.
When I started to get into the gym about 5 years ago they were one of the first names I thought of but then I looked at their prices. Its easy to look at any retail and say "amazon ruined it" but their prices were bad compared to even local supplement stores or big box retailers. Often having items priced 150% to 200% more. Plus the crowd they began to cater to, the often called "gym rat", are particular about their supplements. I know I was and started to be able to only find the stuff I liked online.
Even their clearance section is overpriced
I LOVE your channel! Never thought I’d be so fascinated by business!
I've learned 1 definitive things from Company Man:
Leveraged buyouts and private equity firms never end in success
Amazon is killing all these companies
Amazon is basically Walmart of the internet; many people are shying away from it.
Granted too little too late, Bezos and his next 20 generations will never have to lift a finger to live in fully catered mansions, but many are dropping Amazon for various reasons im happy to say
It didn't help the executive board did as much damage as Amazon did adding massive amount of debt to push up stock prices when the majority of their benefits is in stock that is then sold off. It was a quick pump and dump and selling the company around to hopefully not be the one caught holding the bag when all that debt came due. You can blame Amazon for a lot of the cut in sales, but that that doesn't explain wasting 1.7 billion in cash debt to push corporate wealth.
Yes
Not this one
It is going down by design
Only 3 ads, thanks for not being ad hungry like most of my other subscriptions with like 6-7 ads per 15 min video! Didn't use the skip glitch since you only put 3!:D
So many retail failures follow the same story - the leveraged buyout kills them off because of the large interest payments. I would love to see an example (if there are any), where a leveraged buyout works and a retail company turns around and goes onto bigger and better things.
My nearest GNC was having a “Going out of Business” sale recently. Probably the only time I went in there
Prob only did a 10% discount too
I once was gifted a gnc voucher. When I was redeeming it there was some money left over and the employee didn’t know how to issue a new voucher and said he wouldn’t accept the purchase until I spent the whole voucher.
He then spent 5-10 minutes pressuring me to spend the rest before trying to figure out how to only use part of the voucher while swearing under his breath at the same time.
He eventually gave up and finished saying he couldn’t process the voucher and then lectured me on how all the stuff they sell is the same “crap” so I should just spend it all
I stopped shopping when I found out I can get the same quality products for 50% of their price.
Exactly at Walmart.
TF supplements. Com is the best yo
There’s a lot going on in the picture at 3:10.
Yes, the store really was called “Lackzoom,” and it was next door to a shop that apparently sold jokes.
That appears to be Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh, just about a block from GNC's current headquarters. The location of The Funny Store is now a place called Wiener World, which has been there for years. It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the Lackzoom building is still standing and it's a pizza place. That building has an interesting mural of Andrew Carnegie and Andy Warhol getting manicures with their hair under dryers.
@@pghrpg4065 Interesting. Love the Burgh and your username.
*f u n n y s t o r e*
I forgot that a GNC was even still open at a mall near me....that’s how forgettable they are.
GNC did what a lot of the older companies did, they ignored the internet until it was too late. There should have been a concerted effort to build a customer base over the net. This would have offset any brick-and-mortar location that was not contributing a positive cash flow. Then these underperforming locations should have analyzed. If it was determined that the underperforming locations could not be turned around then the decision to close those locations should have been made.
They also committed a horrible error by ignoring their debts. A debt repayment plan should have been conceived, implemented, and followed.
The definitely ignored the internet. A few years ago, Vitamin Shoppe implemented their subscription service that allows people to have their most commonly used products shipped to them every 30/60/90 days. That's great if you use something like one of the letter vitamins.
Whenever I was interested in a vitamin or supplement, I seem to remember them always being super expensive. I think even more so than Walgreens/CVS.
The local gnc in my area stopped paying their rent on time and the mall manager changed the locks on them.
Rite Aid probably deserves its own video, though not necessarily a "Decline of" one.
In West Virginia, recently all Rite Aid's became Walgreens's
@J D Hey u a west Virginianer? Have u had Stewart's hot dogs
The Rite Aid/Walgreens merger is so confusing. I go into a Rite Aid and the pharmacy is labeled as a Walgreens but the products on the shelf are Rite Aid. And in town there is a Rite Aid across from a Walgreens and they are both open.
And this story didn't reference when the FDA seized millions of their supplements because they were adulterated with carcinogens and DMAA back around 2012.
Didn't they have some issues back in the 90's too? I vaguely remember them getting busted selling a bunch of bodybuilding products that contained illegal steroids, that they somehow found a loophole to sell for a while but then the FDA shut them down. I suspect a lot of their success depended on selling grey-market types of supplements like that for a while.
And in 2015 the Oregon Attorney General filed a lawsuit against them for knowingly selling supplements adulterated with β-methylphenethylamine, a banned stimulant that is structurally similar to amphetamine.
They're gunna need a Sensu Bean for that haha (Team Four Star DBZ reference)
Yeah, but not everything has an EQUAL chance of causing cancer. When it starts becoming statistically significant, and rather high? You start to worry. In their case, it had a relatively high chance of causing cancer, enough that the FDA thought it was illegal to sell.
Like, there's a difference between "Eating crispy fries" cancer, and "Huffing Radon" cancer. This was closer to "Huffing Radon".
Wasn't that Hydroxycut?
I've been a health food store consumer since the late 70's when I was in high school and I have to say GNC is extremely high priced. What they consider to be a "sale" price is a regular price at other places. Also their employees although well versed in nutrition also engage in the "hard sell" which always makes me curious if they are pushing health or that months "products we need to move". Vitamin Shoppe is my personal favorite. Their prices are reasonable, they offer great sales and their employees are knowledgable without the hard sell. If you approach them they will help you. Also, their stores are usually equipped with computers if you need to do research on a particular vitamin or mineral. Also their own named products work very well too.
I just remembered GNC as that one place that hassocks similar logo to GMC. I remember getting sad as a kid thinking that we’d see some cool trucks in the store only to find supplements and vitamins
Idea: Company Man. Why he's so successful.
Because he uses 'awesome' to make his video's.
Because he actually takes time on his videos.
People got technology too much time on hands its like their fingers are all full
That'd be a good anniversary video
The most annoying thing about GNC, is/was that you couldn't enter one without getting hit with a sales pitch.
I only ever used GNC for protein powders anyway - because that was the only place to get them - or at least have a choice of a variety of them.
I've always purchased vitamins at supermarkets, Kmart's, or Wallmart's - and still do.
I think I’ve only seen them located in malls and the occasional strip mall, explains why we are here today.
What happened to GNC:
They were charging $80 a bottle for snake oils, and the Internet called them out.
The end.
No different than the body builder pushing their brand
lol exactly
simple as that right? surprised their scheme worked for as long as it did
Everyone realized the only vitamins worth taking are the anabolic kind.
@@joshhaltom323 except the products bodybuilders push have efficacious doses of proven ingredients. Y'all really don't know your biochemistry or nutrition and supplementation eh
In recap, the board of directors/CEOs made a bunch of smooth brain moves
What a classic
"I'm guessing that you already know all of this."
I thought they were a truck company.
So did I- the name sounds like a truck company or sports shoe company 😂
That’s GMC
That's GMC, lol
Something else I want to say about GNC: they are pushy as hell in the store. I live in central Ohio and the workers will not leave me alone. I actually warned one (after 3 interruptions) to leave me alone or I'd walk out the store and he came back after less than a minute! Yes I walked out and I didn't come back which was a shame because their melatonin sublingual is a very good product.
ThAt was probably mean dude. It's okay your loss
Are they worse than GameStop?
Sublingual like can you speak different languages
@@placesaroundus Ahhh yeah man!
Even though they're overpriced, I Stop in just to see what they'd have, but quite going because there sales people are way too pushy, it turned me off on them.
One of their biggest problems that wasn’t mentioned in the video is that the majority of what they sell is useless. The few useful items can be, as mentioned, purchased at a grocery store or online. With the advancement of the internet, etc. consumers are more informed than ever and this is bad for a company that relies on selling useless products.
Sometimes their prices are reasonable but most of them kinda suck. I prefer vitamin shoppe
You completely forgot to mention that Vitamin Shoppe would open up across from almost every mall that had a GNC and offer lower prices on a lot of the same products. The fact that they were outside of a mall gave them more visibility as well, so people naturally could gravitate there.
Just yesterday i was thinking about whats happening with GNC's business model and today i see your video :) Thanks a ton for the info
Well - selling overpriced vitamins and body building supplements out of Malls - was hip when Malls were hip - a couple decades ago.
I was really hoping you'd cover their switch from selling supplements to selling their own supplements. They switched from being a marketplace to being a brand, that had to have a huge financial impact. It either negatively effected them by limiting their selection or could have been their path towards salvation if they had been able to get their product lines into more "competing" stores.
I used to joke about their percentage of gnc brand must be sold or else.
Get rid of the competitors products and then 100% of the gnc sales will be gnc products.
Now they have just about done that.
I miss the better products
GNC brand is low quality.
@@seroyajeschke2069 GNC products are the best in store. 😎
@@elgenius7536 incorrect
GNC is now in Walmart
I wouldn't shy away from stock prices or accounting/financing in your videos. They are an essential part to understanding the company, history and story. As long as you do a good job of explaining why each point matters in layman's terms, which you do well all ready. Don't apologize for that stuff, it is just distracting from the point. Keep up the great work.
Every time I saw the store logo, I’m like “They just ripped off the GMC logo!”
8:38 - I knew it, there had to a be leveraged buy out somewhere in the story.
Starting to think maybe we should not allow those anymore...
M E it I agree. They’re always ran by people who have shady backgrounds that lean towards to side of their activities being illegal.
Wow, this was my request on the website. Awesome!!!
Are we not going to talk about how they basically stole GMC’s logo?
Haha! I know, right? 🤣
Surprised they haven’t gotten sued by General Motors
Anthony Molina it’s because they are in a completely different business category and it wouldn’t be worth a lawsuit
The first time I saw a GNC store, I thought they sold car accessories and somehow took over the dietary supplement branch.
Rich stealing from the Rich, we don’t give a f...
Company Man: Name one company that sells vitamins bigger than them
CVS HAS ENTERED THE CHAT
Vitacost and Amazon sell a lot of supplements.
Nobody:
GNC: I used the profits to destroy the profits
I think it’s about time to do a “Company Man” why he’s successful video. Love watching your videos each week.
Literally went to GNC (here in Ontario) for the first time since the lockdowns, this past Saturday. They have a protein shake that I use regularly that doesn't disagree with me and tastes great. I went to use my discount card and they said that they stopped using that in Canada as of June 1st. My first thought was "uh-oh.... something's going wrong". Didn't know about the bankruptcy.
When a store stops accepting their gift cards, that is not a good sign.
Looking at it all wrong... you won’t need a discount when the whole store goes 70% off due to bankruptcy.
I’ll never forgot the time I went into a GNC to kill time and figured I’d buy a protein bar the kid working there straight up told me he didn’t know how to work the register and was the only one working.
😂😂😂
Company Man: "...And there was a leveraged buyout..."
Me: *Mr. Plinkett voice* ".....ohh......"
damit dale
How embarrassing!
I clapped, I clapped when I saw this.
When the GNC’s down here had 50% off sales, their prices were still higher than the many nutrition stores next to any gym. The most obvious downfall of all time.
getting a video of your company on the Company Man channel is free advertisement 😆
the one at the "mall" here in town is almost always empty. I've never seen more than 2 or 3 employees in there and maybe 1 or 2 customers. One of the managers told me once you can buy everything they sell online through amazon, rite aide/cvs/walgreens/walmart for same price or cheaper.
They copied the font and color of the gmc logo from the 90s
Exactly
As a kid I would always confused the two as the same brand because of that
I always thought they were owned by the same company but one was a different sect for cars and the other for health stuff
They thought we wouldn't notice...but we did.
i just quit gnc after working there for a year. i was the only employee at my store aside from the manager for a while and was pressured to hit impossible goals for 1 person. half the time the "exclusive sales" aren't actually exclusive, they go on all year and are just swapped out every few months. budget cuts are also constantly happening because of stupid stuff
When a Company gets a 'Leveraged Buy Out' that usually means that Private Equity takes over a company, extracts money with new loans from a Bank...then as the CEO's and Board Director Flee the Company with the 'loan' money...the Company goes Bankrupt.
So glorified money laundering with a pinch of white collar crime.
I can’t be the only who thought they also made cars at one point
Thats gmc
Um you at the worng gmc
That’s General Motors under the “GMC” brand which is very similar. GMC was formed much earlier than GNC so it’s likely that The logo and name of GNC is knockoff of the GMC auto brand owned by General Motors
@@wclifton968gameplaystutorials Seriously, the GNC logo is the exact same color and font, they totally ripped it from GM.
I hope you are the only one.
What we really need is a video about the rise and fall of the Funny Store.
I have always gotten GNC confused with GMC. The similar logos, letters in their names, color schemes, basically everything. That probably was not an uncommon thing for them.
honestly kind of surprised GMC didn't sue for all that.
@@chrisbuttonshaw2088 Its hard to sue a company in a different industry that does not even compete but I am not sure.
As a gym rat, I have some input that I've heard among the fitness community.
GNC used to be able to sell real pharmaceuticals/PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) like prohormones and fat burners like ephedra/ephedrine that actually work. Once all those things were banned by the FDA, GNC had to resort to all the BS supps u see in their stores today. You buy equally effective budget supps at Walmart. Once this happened, actual fitness fanatics stopped shopping at GNC and started buying things on the black market or just settled for whatever Walmart has.
ain’t that the truth, I remember buying the Ripped Fuel from Twinlab they would sell that had Ephedrine and the Xenedrix -RF1 the original fat burners that really worked back in the 90’s and early 2000’s and the Androstenedione supps these supplements not only got you jacked but really gave you results and even the Ultimate Orange back in the day. Now you have to go online to find stuff or go Walmart for supplements now. But the stuff I mentioned before , I’d rather stay away from that stuff . 👍🏼
I was gonna say the same thing, when I was younger I used to shop there all the time, but they were always expensive, now I just go to Walmart or Costco and get better stuff for a lot less.
Their prices were fucking insane. That's one thing that causes their downfall.
Company Man is one of the most ethical TH-camrs, since he discloses all the companies sponsoring his awesome videos right at the start, lol
Ahhh GNC, the Radio Shack of supplements. Nothing better than a creatine-overdosing beef bro telling you to buy 2LBS of protein for 100$
I bought a 5 lb tub for 35.