Did you hear?…Big Fitness advertising sale of one store online to focus on Internet

Big Fitness, established in 1991 in Rhode Island, has placed ads on SNEWS®, Craigslist, Bizquest and other websites offering for sale one of two stores to focus on its growing Internet and catalog business.

“Little by little, it took over,” owner Chris Soucie told SNEWS about the Internet side of the business. “Everybody’s online.”

The store, open for seven years in Seekonk, Mass., just over a bridge from the Rhode Island state line, is profitable, with the ads listing $715,000 as gross income.

“For the right person, it could be a million-dollar store,” Soucie said.

The company, which started selling online about 10 years ago, will keep its office and headquarters, 18,000-square-foot warehouse and 2,000-square-foot showroom at its Rhode Island location.

“We’d rather concentrate on the Net, but for a family, a good operator or somebody who knows how to run a business,” the Seekonk store is a great opportunity, Soucie said.

“Is retail a dinosaur? No. People still like to go in and get on stuff and touch it,” he added, which is why he is keeping his own showroom at his main Big Fitness location.

The businesses have had a tough year, like most, but he feels the economy is going to turn around toward the end of 2009. He is willing to partly finance a purchase, will keep the store listed on his own website (www.bigfitness.com) and will train a new owner and staff. His current lines include Precor, Star Trac, Landice, Body Solid, BodyCraft, Vision and Life Fitness.

To read more about his business and the sale on SNEWS, click here.