Jacksonville Retro Fitness gyms shut down without warning to employees, members

Both Jacksonville franchises of Retro Fitness suddenly shut down on Saturday, with no warning for members or employees.

Several of those workers are single mothers who are now scrambling to support their families.

Both the Atlantic Boulevard and Baymeadows Retro Fitness locations were franchised by former Jaguars player and Action Sports Jax contributor David Garrard.

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Signs posted on the doors said, “As a consequence of unsustainable and continuing financial losses, these gyms are closed.”

“Any kind of notice would have been nice,” said Rose Daniel, who was the fitness director at the Baymeadows Retro Fitness. “I’m a single mom of a 5-year-old who’s also expecting her second child. So, to not have an income in a blink of an eye, yeah, it sucks.”

Not only that, she won’t get the maternity leave she said Retro Fitness promised her.

She’s seven months pregnant.

“It’s rough. No one wants to hire someone they know is leaving in two months to have a baby,” said Daniel.

A Retro Fitness spokesperson told Action News Jax all the Jacksonville gym members’ contracts were canceled.

She said any answers about how employees were notified of the shutdown would have to come from the local franchisee.

Garrard told Action News Jax he has no comment.

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“Nobody knew whatsoever, so it was very shocking,” said Ashely Woody, a single mother who worked in child care at the Atlantic Boulevard location of Retro Fitness.

Woody said she and some other employees never even got a text message notifying them about the shutdown.

“I literally just broke down because:What am I going to do now? I have a 5-year-old child,” said Woody.

Woody, Daniel and dozens of others are applying for jobs and unemployment benefits.

The closest Retro Fitness location still open is in Fleming Island.

Cox Media Group