US gym memberships

As Americans have purchased more gym memberships, they have also spent more money at tanning salons, a correlation that will surprise absolutely no one who has visited a strip mall in New Jersey. The coefficient is 0.902 across eight years, during which both industries rose, were devastated by the pandemic, and recovered with the resilience of businesses that depend on human vanity, which is to say with considerable resilience indeed. The gym and the tanning bed: two different machines, one shared objective.

US gym memberships grew from about 57 million in 2015 to over 66 million by 2022, dipping during the pandemic before recovering as in-person fitness rebounded. Tanning salon revenue followed a similar trajectory, growing modestly from about 2.6 billion to 3.1 billion while weathering the same pandemic disruption. Both industries serve the appearance-conscious consumer who is willing to pay monthly for access to body modification equipment, and both were classified as non-essential businesses during lockdowns. The shared variable is disposable income directed toward physical appearance: people who invest in looking fit often invest in looking tan, and both behaviors spike in the months before summer and formal events.

Eight years of gym memberships and tanning salons moving together is a story about the body maintenance economy: an industry built on the premise that natural appearance is a starting point rather than a destination. Both businesses sell the promise of improvement through repetition, and both depend on the customer showing up regularly. The weights go up, the UV timer counts down, and the mirror remains the final judge.