Thread: The truth about GNC

GNC is a joke!

Most of those people working there have NO clue what they are talking about.

Good post bro. I'm guessing that you've worked at gnc before?

Because they abuse their employes is normal......if you know where to go....you can get much better deals on line......I'm sure you can get references here at...ironmag......

....................charley

180 count GNC fish oil $36
BB.com (cheap supps brand) $10

10lbs ON whey $156
BB.com $80

I could go on and on...

Originally Posted by Johndoe65

Every GNC employee is expected to hit certain sales goals each and every week called "key indicators". If your key indicators drop, than they can and will fire your butt. Think about all these insane goals, and how hard it would be to do this day in day out. GNC employees are under a ton of pressure that ties their hands, and makes it impossible for them to actually help you.

Here are the indicators(bare minimums)*I explain what they mean latter:

P3- 40%

GC- 15%

MV- 15%

OMS- 3%

UPT- 3

PM- 3%

Avg. Sale- $40

corporate keeps on making them higher a little bit at a time. If you do not hit these numbers you will be getting calls from corporate, asking you "What is wrong with you?". Personal attacks and scare tactics are common in the company. If you are doing well, the praise is far and few between. Top leaders do not get promoted or better pay, they just get corporate off their back.

"P3" stands for "premium products". They are the best in each category. For example, the vitapaks are all P3, Wheybolic Extreme, the entire beyond Raw line. Corporate says that the P3 program exists to ensure that customers get the absolute best. What they don't realize is employees end up forcing a not so great product, that is very expensive, when there are much better 3rd party alternatives. For example, compare Reforge in their beyond raw line, to iso-mass by Ultimate Nutrition. There is no reason anyone would buy reforge if they saw the iso-mass, but iso is usally hidden on some bottom shelf and the employee would never recommend it because it has no commission. Managers receive a 5% comission on all GNC made products. They also receive some commission on products GNC does not make, but only the ones corporate wants them to sale.

"GC"- or gold card memberships. They will hound you to get one. It will save you 20% the first week of every month. What they don't tell you is that they raise their prices the 1st~10th of every month, then lower them back down after gold card week is over. Don't believe me? Next time flip over a bunch of the sale price tags and you will see the dates, and different prices.

"MV"- or multi vitamins. They will always hound you to take a multi because they have to too keep corporate happy. Vitapaks are the most over priced, bull crap things in the store. It is much cheaper per serving to buy each pill in the vitapaks separately. They have all sorts of sales pitches worked out to get you into a vitapak because then you have to come back every month.

OMS- or one more sale, is the *** chewy samples that they are always trying to offer you. They are basically a starburst with a little vitamins or whatever in them. Unhealthy, and over priced! 1/3 the active ingredients, 1/2 the servings, at the same price. Never buy these, buy the pills and save a bundle.

UPT- "units per transaction". They will try to sale you more than one item to make their UPT's go up.

PM- Promotional money, or commission. Managers get a 5% kick back on only GNC made things. Some GNC products have a separate flat commission rate, i.e. you get $3 to sale this. And some of the 3rd party vendors have commissions. Muscletech, Dymatize, Cellucor, Gaspari, USP labs all give pretty solid commission rates. BSN(NO xplode), Ultimate Nutrition, Optimum Nutrition, Cytosport (muscle milk) do not and will not every pay commission which is why you never see an associate pushing those brands, even though they are arguably the best.

Average sale- the average amount someone is spending when they walk in the door. GNC employees hate it when someone buys just one drink because it destroys their numbers.. A sales person who hates a sale, just tells you how messed up the incentive programs are at GNC:.

Bottom line, don't listen to GNC employees". Read reviews, get educated on nutritional ingredients and make your own choices?. Then buy your stuff online, where it is ALWAYS cheaper than GNC

great post!

Lol, think someone just got fired and feels like airing the dirty laundry. Not that anyone here should know that GNC is packed full of useless overpriced shit anyway.

But the American sheep, oops I mean "public" that don't know any better will continue to get in line with whatever their TV tells them. Hey everyones just trying to make a buck.

Get a better job bro.

I always use the Mega Men sport powdered vitamin from GNC . I got tired of swallowing those big ass tabs . I always knew GNC receives a commission on different products . My brother works for Vitamin World and it's the same bullshit there . I go to vitacost.com and sometimes Ebay .

I stopped buying from GNC when i worked there at age 16 and my boss was a FAT mexican bitch who thought she knew everything about sports supplements...in actuality she was pushing MHP products which we recieved the highest commission on. I dont believe i've ever been back to a GNC

Originally Posted by Johndoe65

(snip) UPT- "units per transaction". They will try to sale you more than one item to make their UPT's go up. (snip)

That's not just at GNC.

Worked for GNC while in college and years later for American Eagle as an assistant manager where they also pushed UPT.

Would you like a belt or boxers with those jeans? Would you like a hat with your coat? Do you need any socks today?

Originally Posted by vancouver

180 count GNC fish oil $36
BB.com (cheap supps brand) $10

10lbs ON whey $156
BB.com $80

I could go on and on...

You can get some super cheap supps from GNC, though. They'll drop the price to the basement on products that are nearing their expiration date.

I just went into a GNC 1 month ago looking for some creapure creatine to buy. I walked in and asked the manager if they had any and he looked at me with a stupid look on his face and said what? What is that? lol I said it was a form of monohydrate that is made in Germany. There are labs in China that have been producing it for years and it is impure and just pure crap. The German brand is the best and most purist form on planet earth and everyone and there mothers know this why don't you? lol I left there and went to 4 more stores in my area and everyone of them said the same thing. What is that I never heard of it lol. So the last guy told me about the Amplify 189 Hydrochloride and said it was the best going today. I never tried it so I bought it and took it home and tried it for 3 weeks and felt nothing from it. No gains at all. I took it back and there was a different Manager there this time. I ask this one about the Creapure and sure enough she had no clue what it was. I told here about the 189 and that it did nothing for me and she took me over to another GNC product called Pro Performance Rapid Drive micronized creatine 5000.

She said this was micronized monohydrate. I said OK I will give this a try. I took it home and looked closer on the label and it only says micronized not monohydrate. It has no form of creatine name on this product label but micronized which means pulverized. You can pulverized anything that is in its solid state even protein. This made no sense to me so I wrote a letter to GNC online and on the Facebook GNC sight asking them what form of creatine this was? They told me creapure? I said what? I know for a fact that creapure is a registered trademark name and anytime you use it in your product you have to put the creapure name on the front of the label. I told them they were full of shit and I wanted to know if there was creapure in there why wasn't the name on the label? Why wasn't there any name of any form of creatine on this label and they said that there wasn't enough room on the label to put all that information and if I did not believe them then I should contact the corporate office. So I did and I am still waiting for an answer lol. I also sent a letter to AlzChem AG
CHEMIEPARK TROSTBERG
Dr. Albert-Frank-Straße 32
83308 Trostberg
Germany.

This is where the creapure is manufactured.

Has anyone ever heard of Pro Performance Rapid Drive micronized creatine 5000 and if so do you know what form of creatine is in it and if it is indeed creapure or the cheaper Chinese monohydrate? Or some other form of creatine?

They just pissed me off with all the bull they tried to feed me.

Thanks

Damn good post here. I worked for a local GNC years ago when first starting to lift. I didn't know any other way. I couldn't believe the prices on some of newer products. For example MRI NO2 pump the original formala started off at $80 I was like wtf. Anyway I quickly learned the ways of GNC and said f them. I order all my shiz at Orbit, Ironmag and any other of our sponsors. Take this for ex myofusion 5lb at orbits lil over $40 and GNC had it 79.99

Some time ago (late 90's) the GNC brand tested way below label claims on several products. They've reportedly cleaned up their supply chain, but I haven't seen recent tests. I know they're soy protein tastes like mill cattle feed.

All I have to say is....every time I walked into GNC (past tense as I buy all my stuff online), the only place I went to was....

"The locked, plastic case!"

That's where they used to keep all the "hardcore" shit.

I feel old....

There is no hardcore shit at GNC........................

Originally Posted by charley

There is no hardcore shit at GNC........................

I was being facetious

Very very true, and back when I was buying some stuff from there, I used to tell the guy, being pushy with me, will yield me walking out that front door and not buying shit.