Undercover Boss (2010) s04e14 Episode Script
Retro Fitness
This week on Undercover Boss The founder and CEO of one of the fastest-growing fitness chains in the United States No one will work for me or Retro Fitness unless they love it and love me.
Goes undercover as a reality show contestant looking to start his own gym.
You must be my contestant.
- I am.
- All right.
Well, nice to meet you.
My name's Barry.
No, you're gonna do it the way I told you.
The way you told me.
Okay.
Gotta wipe it down.
Good.
By working in the field, this boss finds it difficult not to sweat the small stuff It's not a cost-effective way to do this.
So much waste here.
Oh, boy.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
And big problems surface when one employee crosses the line.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
With some people, I just want to punch them in the face sometimes.
What will happen when he comes face to face with his worst nightmare? How many times do I have to tell you? Don't @#$% with me, dude.
The Retro Fitness CEO inside of me really wants to fix this right now.
Just wait, baby.
Just wait.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x14 - Retro Fitness Original air date April 26, 2013 Headquartered in New Jersey, Retro Fitness provides gym memberships to more than 300,000 members Eight.
Scoring revenues of more than $100 million a year.
What's happening, Steph? Overseeing the 1,200 employees that keep this gym empire fit is one man.
I'm Eric Casaburi.
I'm the founder and CEO of Retro Fitness.
Retro Fitness started out of frustration.
I was operating gyms in the fitness industry, and I just felt that there was a niche that wasn't being filled.
And I just was truly passionate that there was a way to offer a high-end fitness experience associated with a really good price.
- Give me 20 reps.
- We've got personal training, a movie theater, tanning, a juice bar.
When I started doing $19.
99 memberships, people, you know, really liked us.
When the recession hit, we essentially became rock stars almost overnight.
We opened 15 clubs in our first year.
And then we did, like, 26 the next year.
Today, Retro Fitness has over 90 gyms with 300,000-plus members, and we employ more than 1,200 people.
It was a very effective business model that we launched at the right time.
So I was born in Staten Island, New York.
You know, Roman catholic, we're an Italian family, you know, church every Sunday.
My family was all blue-collar.
And I literally mean a blue collar, 'cause they're all cops and firemen.
All my uncles, my father.
So when we were growing up, you had to make a penny go really far.
You had to turn it into a dime.
As a kid, you know, mom was at every sporting event and dad was working.
That's what it was.
Dad's at work.
So I was a mama's boy.
When I was 11, 11 turning 12, that's when my mother was diagnosed with melanoma.
It would come and it would go, it would come and it would go, but then toward the end, when it came back, it came back.
And I remember my dad came in, and my brother followed behind him, and he sat us both on the bed, and in one sentence He said, "mommy's gone.
" And I was like, you know Like, my world just totally changed.
I mean life as I knew it was done.
I was, like, dumbfounded, totally 'cause I didn't think it would ever happen.
I didn't think those words would ever come out of his mouth or anyone's mouth.
And I was like, "wow.
" I miss her every day.
Most people at that time that were diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer had a three-year life span.
And she actually had a six-year span.
She never said no, and she was always willing to continue to fight.
And I think I grabbed the DNA part from her of there's no finish line, you fight till the end.
I think I'm motivated by Winning.
I got my first personal training certification in high school.
Then I gradually, you know, went through all of the ranks in the gym, and then went to college.
You know, the greatest thing that I took home from college was my wife.
I didn't take home a degree, but I got Kim, so that was a win.
When I'm hooked on doing something or setting a goal, there's nothing that I won't do or try.
There's just nothing I won't do.
It's my opinion it can be done.
- Okay.
- Let's get it done.
There's no doubt about it, I am definitely not your typical CEO.
We tell people right away, even when we interview them for a position here, the corporate culture here is unique.
I want you guys to see the new technology.
The engine runs only at one speed, and it's very high.
And if you can't keep up, then don't take the position.
No one will work for me or Retro Fitness unless they love it and love me.
Life is entirely too short to not do something you absolutely love.
My life today is it's pretty awesome.
All right.
Let's see what you got.
Oh, yeah! I'm married.
I've got four absolutely outstanding children.
And they're all awesome.
I mean, they're just really great kids.
They're super well-rounded.
Yeah! I think the hardest thing for me going undercover is probably gonna be being away from my family for so long.
Boo.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I think one of the main reasons I want to go undercover is because we're at a critical point at Retro Fitness.
Is this gonna mess with my real hair? Oh, no, nothing is gonna happen to your real hair.
We're heading in on 100 gyms, and when we get to 250 or 500, anything that could be going wrong in the system at that level is much harder to get your arms around than it would be today.
I'm a little nervous about going undercover, but I've got this great disguise.
I've transformed into Barry Gauche, a down-on-his-luck guy competing on a reality show to win his own gym.
[Clicks tongue.]
Mom and dad think you've made it.
[Baby babbling.]
What's up? I swear I didn't know who that was.
I didn't even know it was you.
[Laughter.]
Daddy's going undercover.
And you're gonna look like that? Who is this guy? Do you know him? No.
Come on, guys.
Daddy has to go.
Grab the bags and get the door.
All right.
I'm extremely concerned about my brand.
I love my brand.
I'm passionate about my brand.
And I want what's best for my brand.
Bye bye.
I also know that there's things that happen at the micromanagement level that I don't get to see every day anymore.
I'm concerned that it might not meet my expectations and how I'm gonna handle that.
All: Bye, daddy.
Today, I'm working at the Retro Fitness in Easton, Pennsylvania, and I'll be working in sales.
Hello.
How are you? This is one of the jobs where I'm more concerned that I might overachieve than underachieve 'cause I always want to sign up every single member that comes close to Retro Fitness.
Unfortunately, I have to dumb it down.
I don't know how.
I may fail at that.
I'm not gonna lie.
- Hello.
- Welcome to Retro.
- How are you? - I'm looking for Megan.
- You found her.
- Wow.
You must be my contestant, right? I am.
All right, well, nice to meet you.
- My name's Barry.
- I'm gonna have you come around, and I'm gonna tell you all the cool stuff that we have going up here, okay? - Okay.
- When Barry first walked in, I noticed that his hair's a little disheveled, and it doesn't look like he did it this morning.
I think Barry needs to clean up a little bit and put some gel or hairspray in his hair, make sure that he looks presentable.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Like, are you why are you opening a gym? Well, I'm in this contest thing, and it's like, gonna learn a lot of information, 'cause at the end of this bye-bye.
Have a good day.
At the end of the gig, we gotta win the show.
- That's the idea.
- Absolutely.
So right here is my favorite little handy-dandy microphone.
What do we do with that sucker? You talk to the members over the intercom.
That's powerful.
I'll talk about our sales up here, like say, "hey, guys, we have $12 T-shirts or a $10 T-shirt.
" "Come up here and get one.
" You're telling the members all the things they need to know.
Absolutely.
So I'm gonna have you make an announcement.
- Let me tell you what to say.
- Oh, me? - Yes.
- Wow.
Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I'm gonna be anointed with the microphone.
So what you're gonna say is, "hey, from now until 7:00," "all shakes are gonna be $1 off," "so come up here and get your protein.
" Whew.
Can you say it to me real quick? Okay, attention, Retro members, from now until 7:00 P.
M.
, we're gonna be giving $1 off our Retro blends.
You can just say, "protein shakes.
" Protein shakes? They know? They know.
They got the vibe.
Just wondering if we should use the word "Retro blends," but okay.
I mean, you can, but, I mean, usually I just tend to say, "all of our protein shakes.
" I personally wrote some of the scripts that we use on the microphones.
I just think sometimes that, some of the women, they might not think a protein shake is for them.
Part of me trying to dumb it down, and it's not working.
I'm pulling on that e-brake hard, and nothing's happening.
We're just cruising along at 90.
They might think like a dude wants a protein shake, but a woman might say, "hey", "a Retro blend or a smoothie.
" I don't know.
Maybe that would sound I'm just throwing stuff out there.
- You're teaching me now.
- I got a contest to win.
I got a contest to win here.
You do have a contest to win, and we're definitely gonna win that.
Maybe Barry did his homework before he came in.
I was wondering about that.
Because I thought I was teaching him.
You're the master already.
You've got this.
- So flick that up.
- Okay.
And go for it.
Attention, Retro members.
From now until 7:00 P.
M.
, there's $1 off the Retro blends smoothie bar.
That's right.
$1 off.
Come get your protein on.
Yay! That was so good.
Give me a high five for that.
Yeah, I guess I should have waited to tell her all that.
I couldn't, though.
'Cause it's not really just a protein shake.
It is so much more.
My gosh, you're a pro already.
- Why am I teaching you? - This is great.
I don't know if Megan's gonna go home scratching her head, saying, "who the hell" "does this Barry guy think he is?" Or is just gonna go home and say, "yeah, that guy Barry" "had a couple of good ideas.
" All right.
What do we got? What's next? - I'm ready.
- Perfect.
All right.
We're gonna do something really cool.
- What are we gonna do? - I'm gonna teach you how to give tours.
- Okay.
- Okay? - Let's do that.
- All right.
So we're gonna try to close this deal, okay? - Sound good? - Do we bring this? - Huh? - This doesn't come? No, you leave that right there, okay? Hi.
How are you? Good.
How are you? - What's your name? - Chrissy.
Chrissy.
Have you ever visited us before? No, we were just kind of wanting to check it out, 'cause it's close.
I think Megan's got a lot of energy.
She loves to talk.
She's bubbly.
She's outgoing.
But I'm looking forward to seeing how she actually does on a tour.
So first is first.
We're gonna start over here.
We do have a lot of cardio equipment.
Treadmills down here, and also, if you like your own personal space, which I'm like that, I usually go up to the top.
We have a long line of treadmills.
- It's pretty cool, right? - Yeah, yeah.
And then in here you can come in here and do stretches.
We also have a lot of kettlebells here.
Part of the challenge, when you have so much energy like Megan does Do you want to do a tire flipping? No.
You get so caught up in wanting to talk to the member.
If you were wanting to do, like, maybe a yoga class she loves Retro so much, she just wants to keep telling people about it.
The challenge is, is when you want someone - to join our gym - Come in here.
We have to really listen more so than we want to be talking.
So I'm glad that you came here and visited us.
Are you thinking about joining with us? Um, I think that we would consider it.
Um, but my fiance is out of town on business, - so I would like to bring him - Oh.
And then we can make the decision.
- Okay, no, that's fine.
- Would that be cool? It is so difficult for me to not interject into the sales process when it's happening right in front of me.
Let me get you guys a business card and a flyer.
I'll be right back with you, okay? All right.
Cool.
Thanks.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
Are you thinking about joining with us? Um, like I said, yeah, we would, but, you know, I have to wait till he gets back - to make that decision really.
- Okay.
Well, we hope to hear from you soon, and we're happy that you're interested in joining our gym.
It is so difficult for me to not interject into the sales process when it's happening right in front of me that it's physically painful.
Tell your fiance to hurry back.
- Okay.
- Come back and join us.
I have to pick him up - at the airport tonight, so - All right.
I think, like, my blood pressure probably just spikes.
I start to sweat, um, and I gotta speak.
You know what they say.
The couples that train together - stay together.
- Yup.
Yup.
So he lands when? He lands tonight? Tonight.
Yeah.
9:30.
Maybe what you guys can do is you come and have a morning workout together, get you both here.
I think if you do that, two of youse coming together, hanging out, sharing a smoothie [Laughs.]
- What could be better? - How perfect.
Yeah.
Let's make a nice appointment to get them in here tomorrow.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- That'd be great.
- I mean, why wait? - To be honest, I was a little frustrated when Barry spoke up.
So we could do a free workout tomorrow - and then - Yeah.
Megan's all about giving away the free stuff.
I feel like if Barry were to train someone for his future business, he would just cross as bossy.
I can't wait to see you guys tomorrow.
- I'll be here.
- Okay.
- Great.
Great.
- Okay? - Nice meeting you.
- It was great to meet you.
Thanks for coming.
All the things that Megan did incorrectly in my assessment today are all easily fixed.
The things that she does on her own naturally, we could never train.
I would rather have the situation the scenario with Megan any day of the week because I know I can fix all of those little minor details.
They're they're minor flaws.
Either you have it or you don't.
You can't read a book and learn, you know, what you're doing out there.
It's so crazy.
It's a lot happening.
These places are busy.
Whoo! Sometimes I know, but it can be done.
- And, like, I seriously - Yeah.
I am forever grateful that I have this job here because - That's awesome.
- I don't mean to cry.
It's just like - no, that's okay.
Listen, just sitting across from someone that really loves their job that much, you have no idea how meaningful that really is.
It is.
Like, I've kind of had a really rough life, and getting here to this point was, like, the best part of my life.
My father, like, decided he didn't want anything to do with me, so I met this guy and decided to be a little rebel, and after I graduated, I told my mom, I said, "I'm leaving home and I'm living with him.
" And he became abusive, and I was too ashamed to call my mother for help.
And sometimes I would sneak out at night and sleep outside in downtown.
And it didn't matter to me if anything were to happen to me outside.
I just was tired of life.
And during that time, I gained a lot of weight.
Like, I was 155, and I went to 210 pounds, and, um - Wow.
- I really destroyed myself.
But then I came home, and my mom took me back in.
And I'm, like, forever thankful, and I owe the world to her.
And here's the best part, though.
Like, it just it gets so good after that, because I got accepted to penn state, and I was just like, "oh, my gosh.
" I'm beside myself.
And then I came here, and then I lost all that weight, and it was almost like a calling.
- I was like, "oh, my gosh.
" - Wow.
And it's just the biggest blessing I've ever had.
I'm gonna tell you this.
It's a great story of success.
- It is.
It is.
- You are a story of success.
You are you are a story of power.
You know, and it's a win.
- Yeah.
- That's awesome.
You know, it's very easy for someone like myself to get caught up in my own world.
I'm so thankful for, you know, moments like we had today because I kind of get to step outside of it and get my feet back on the ground in so many ways, and not just the Retro Fitness way.
I'm talking about as a human being.
I'm so proud of her.
And it makes me want to be a part of her success.
I want to help her succeed.
I want to see her cross the threshold.
Let me tell you this from experience that good things always, always happen - Always.
- To good people.
And you are a very good person.
Today, we're in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Retro Fitness, where we'll be working at the front desk.
It's a busy facility, so it would be my expectation that whoever's working is up for the task.
Hi.
How are you? The front desk position is really important.
My hope today is to see an energetic, enthusiastic individual that really cares about all the aspects of front desk being executed on exactly how we trained them.
- Hi.
How are you? - Hi.
- Is Jacqueline here? - That's me.
- That's you.
Hey, Jacqueline.
- Hi, how are you? I'm Barry.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
- You got your - I do, yes.
- Oh, there we go.
- I am ready.
- Want to come over this side? - Absolutely.
All right.
There's a lot of stuff to know - Okay.
- But it's not hard.
You want to you want to own it, manage it, right? - The gym? - Yes, yeah.
Okay, so that's even more important.
Like, me, I'm just a front desk.
So I just kind of sit here, say my "hey"s, "how are you?" - Walk around, do some of that.
- Right.
You know, but most of the time I'm kind of just like this.
Here.
All right.
Someone walks in.
Hey, how you doing? You use that while you work? - Yup.
- Wow.
- That's crazy.
- It's slow.
What else am I supposed to do? I find myself over here like this.
This.
Taking pictures of myself.
You can run your gym the way you want it to run.
You can have your employees not take out their phone and take selfies all day, but that's what I like to do.
I don't know.
I just do my thing.
If someone may have a question, maybe they might not approach you, because they think you're busy, you know, they don't want to interrupt your personal well, that's actually never happened to me.
People love to interrupt here.
People love to be obnoxious.
I'm not a @#$% slave.
I don't @#$% Work for you.
I don't know what to do.
With some people, I just want to punch them in the face sometimes.
Oh, that would be bad.
No, you'll get there.
You meet her, she seems very nice, you know, these big eyes and nice girl, and nice smile, and you think, "hey, all is right in the world.
" And then she opens her mouth, and it's just like, you know, the bats from hell start flying out.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
They don't kw how to use a machine, so they're over here looking like @#$% doing the machine.
And then they come up here, and they're like, "well, what does protein do?" Dude, the @#$%? You don't know what protein does? She certainly doesn't seem to like people very much.
We are in the people business.
There's just no other way to put it.
When you're here, you're representing us.
Okay, let's get to something important.
Do you want to do smoothies? Yeah, I think it's great.
They're really important.
This is the menu of how we make it.
It's super explanatory.
Like, you would be literally brain-dead if you can't get it.
So, if you look at that and can't understand it, then you should probably turn around and not do this.
All right, so go here, - scoop.
- Got it.
This is our peanut butter and chocolate.
Now, we're not supposed to put more than what it says on the menu.
And it says on the menu, "one pump.
" I always put 21/2.
We're not supposed to, but it tastes better, honestly.
The juice bar is on average inside of the gym.
It's one area of the gym that I really, really care about.
- So you would go one, six, go.
- Okay.
That makes a disgusting shake, honestly.
- Okay.
- So what I always do one and hold juice.
At some point, I realize that maybe we should have renamed it Jacqueline's juice bar, because it seems like she's got her own way of doing everything.
Fill it to the top, don't overflow it, because then you'll make a mess.
Put it in the sink.
- And that's a shake.
- That's the perfect shake.
I noticed that there was, like, extra in here.
Like, what do do you guys, like, make samples out of that? I dump it out.
You don't offer it to the member at all? - Nope.
Dump it out.
- Dump it out.
If they want it, they can take it, but if not, oh, well.
There is a cost associated with every ingredient that goes into that shake.
So when you're dumping that down the sink, you're just dumping money down the sink.
We could have sampled it, pass 'em out to a couple of the members that are out there.
There was definitely a better use for that than to watch it go down the sink.
Do you wanna show me how to make a shake just so I know before I let you go? - Sure.
- What would you like? - Okay.
- You said a dirty peanut? - Right? Okay.
- Yeah.
Are we doing it the way it says? No, you're gonna do it the way I told you.
The way you told me, okay.
So we want two of these from you, right? - That's not a full pump.
- Okay.
- How's that? - One more.
One more.
You gotta pick up the pace, dude.
- Come on.
- Picking up the pace.
- Here we go.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
[Chuckles.]
That's enough ice.
Okay.
I would normally hit the code, but okay, well, I'm telling you the way people like it.
- Okay.
- But if you don't want to listen to me, that's all good.
You don't have to win.
It's all good for me.
I would love to listen to you.
I just think that maybe we would go with the code, but go ahead.
Go with the code, dude.
Do it up.
First of all, Barry's @#$% awkward.
He's condescending.
He's not absorbing anything that I'm saying.
@#$% listen to me, 'cause I know what I'm doing, I know my @#$%.
How come this isn't punching? 'Cause you're probably doing it on the wrong side.
Oh, that is the reason why.
It's not rocket science.
It's a hole puncher.
- I know.
- Maybe if you listened to me, I don't know.
I'm gonna need it today.
I'm gonna @#$% kill him.
[Chuckles.]
So Berry slim? Sure.
Do you want protein in it or no? - Yes, please.
- Yeah, okay.
You want a little protein? Okay.
And this goes in the 16-ounce cup, I assume? It just happens to say No, you just do a full cup.
You do it in the full cup? You don't have to go by the book with every situation in your life.
[Chuckles.]
The menu says medium, though, doesn't it? Yeah, but I'm telling you this way.
Oh, well, then, that's why.
I forgot it was Jacqueline's juice bar.
Excuse me? I don't think Barry understands that I work here every single day, and I know what I'm doing.
I know my @#$%.
You don't have people skills, Barry, I'm sorry.
You're so condescending and rude to me, I really can't stand it.
Oh, I would never be.
Just wait, baby.
Just wait.
Yes.
- Today.
- Wow.
I'm gonna make you the best shake in the world right now.
Just do it, because you're taking way too long.
It has to be fast-paced.
I want you to stop talking.
[Groans.]
I'm never mean.
I'm not being mean.
Hey.
Okay, huh? Who the hell does this girl think she is? If one member has to experience that attitude, to me, that's one too many.
One pomegranate paradise.
Thank you very much.
You're very welcome.
I got you.
Oh, Hakim, hey! - Your payment - Huh? Your payment's overdue.
I know.
I'm gonna pay it.
I'm gonna pay it tomorrow.
No.
No.
You have to pay today.
- Nuh-uh, Jackie.
- Hello? No, listen.
How many times do I have to tell you? Don't @#$% with me, dude.
It's very frustrating for me to listen to this happen, have other people that can hear it in earshot some of the things that she's saying.
No, you listen to me.
Oh, my God.
I have told you this.
For the sake of the job, I don't want to blow my cover, but the Retro Fitness CEO inside of me really wants to fix this right now.
Okay, Jacqueline, I've taken all the information for one day I got it all down, so I'm gonna head out.
Got it all? All right.
We'll see.
We'll see what happens.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- At this point, it's my duty as the franchisor to contact my franchisee, have a conversation about Jacqueline and her future.
[Yawns.]
Derek, hey, I need you to we got to talk.
Like, you have to try to call me tonight.
If you can, just please call me.
I'm not sure how that's gonna go.
We have some big decisions to make.
[Sighs.]
Oh, man.
There's definitely a lot to digest and process over the last couple of days.
Time for dinner.
Dinner of champions.
Jacqueline is certainly a major liability for my company.
Just thinking that she's gonna be on another shift possibly, and she could be working again tomorrow, and the wrath of her's gonna occur to some of our members, it's really bothering the crap out of me.
[Blender whirring.]
I know without a shadow of a doubt that the owners of this facility would never want a person like that working in their club.
We have some things to figure out about Jacqueline and her future at Retro Fitness.
Today, I'm at the Retro Fitness in Yonkers, where I'll be working with the general manager.
Sign in, guys.
System is up.
The Yonkers location is in a really dense market, so it's a busy club.
A lot of activity happens here.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
After working with Jacqueline, I can only hope that today won't be like yesterday, so I'm looking forward to getting to work with this employee.
Oh, thank you.
- Hi.
- Are you Ivette? - Yes.
- Hey.
- How you doing? - Hi, I'm Barry Gauche.
- Ivette.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you as well.
I'm just gonna show you around.
I'm gonna show you our cardio deck, - our machines.
- Great.
- So let's go.
- Okay.
Barry was definitely a little older than what I thought he was gonna be.
And I was happy at the fact that he was actually fit, which is not like a fat guy trying to put up a gym.
This is all really nice stuff.
Do you see the cleanness of it? - You know, it's yeah.
- Did you notice it? You can't help but not.
That's interesting.
Okay, okay.
We work really hard on that.
Yeah, you must pay attention to that.
We work really hard on that.
These are my dumbbell racks.
What do I do here? Let's see.
They're definitely dirty.
These right here are called wipes.
Isn't there a spray that you guys could buy for that? - No.
- Got it.
So now what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna go - through each one.
- Okay.
Through the whole thing.
Ivette, she's a little bit of an Alpha.
She has her system of cleaning the dumbbell racks.
It's it's not perfect, in my opinion.
You think when you have your own place you're gonna get, like, a spray to do it, or I got to imagine if you have a diluted solution that you could probably add water to, - which I think I've seen - Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but then you still have to go through it, though.
You still got to use your towels.
You're gonna spray it, and what's gonna happen? You got to wipe it down.
Well, wouldn't you use a rag, though? Yeah.
I believe there is a more efficient and less expensive way to do that, and the tasks still get done to a very high degree.
I'm gonna go check on the staff real quick.
I'll be right back, okay? I will be right here.
I know you will.
Okay.
You would definitely want to do this task with a rag, not with these wipes.
This is not a cost-effective way to do this.
- What is he doing now? - Still on the dumbbells.
He's gonna be there for a while.
What do you have him doing? Cleaning everything how you do it.
You know how you take 'em off and then clean around? Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
There's so much waste here with this method.
Might as well can learn how to do everything.
The biggest offender is right in that little crevice.
Oh, boy.
Barry, are you sweating? No way.
Sweat? I only glow.
Good.
You see, with the spraying, what you would do is, you would spray it and think that's done.
With these Oh, no, when I said a spray, I mean, spray it, take a rag, and drag.
Then you take a dry rag, go behind it, shake it like that, and that residue you just got, you won't get.
I'm kind of, like, insulted.
Yeah, the wipes work, and they're just fine, and we're sanitizing this right now.
That's what we're doing here at Retro of Yonkers.
What I want to do is I want to go over some phone calls with you.
These phone calls that we're making, these are delinquencies.
Yonkers, it's sad to say, it's a whole different demographic here.
"A," people around here don't pay their cell bill on time, you can disconnect it and then put it back and a whole bunch of stuff.
So let's say the billing company, they're calling them for a whole week, four or five times, they don't pick up the phone, they erase the number, which makes it so much harder for me.
- So the billing company - Mm-hmm.
Is deleting a number out of your system.
Yes.
Once it doesn't work once or twice, they actually delete it.
That should never happen.
I think we should at least keep the number in the system saying marking it, "this number's been deactivated.
" I would imagine that could probably be fixed with a phone call or two from someone.
No.
We've tried.
I mean, we've tried hey.
How you doing? - How you doing? - This is my fiance.
Hey, how are you? I'm Barry.
- That's Barry.
- Nice to meet you.
We were just going over everything.
- It's a lot.
- Yeah.
Yeah, he'll tell you, we try to go on trips and [Laughter.]
Yeah, I could imagine that.
Sometimes I'll go home, cook, and come back downstairs.
- You live in this building? - Yeah, I do.
So you have, like, the shortest commute in the world, which is probably actually worse - Which is horrible.
- Yeah, it is.
Because not only you don't get called, they expect you to probably come on in and fix something, right? Right, no, like, I have "Retro" right here.
Living in the building where the gym is, that's crazy.
I came to see if you wanted something to eat or something.
No, I'm okay.
There was probably a time when I wished that I could have lived upstairs from my gym.
I may be divorced right now, if that was the case, but anyone who's doing something at a high level for a long time, you gotta unplug the battery for a second and just let it recharge.
Are you from this area? Did you grow up around here? No, I'm from Miami.
- Are you really? - Yeah.
- Get out of here.
- Uh-huh, yeah.
- How'd you wind up up here? - He's from here.
What about your family? Where are they? - My mom lives in Italy.
- What? - Yeah.
- Your mom's in Italy? - Yeah, she is.
- What's she doing there? She got deported back to Italy.
Do you get to see her? I don't get to see her as often, but I need to make an effort to go see her now, 'cause she's sick.
What's the matter? She has lupus.
Yeah, she's had it for a while, for, like, 28 years.
She's a fighter, though, and God willing, she'll be good.
Wow.
My mother passed away when I was young.
What did your mom have that she died of? - Melanoma.
Skin cancer.
- Yeah? Mm-hmm.
And how old were you? I was, uh, 16 when she passed away.
But I gotta tell you, I think what you're doing now is probably harder than what I was doing, because, at a different level, you don't get to be there and and, you know it's been like, I don't feel like I got to enjoy my mom as much as I wanted to enjoy her, though.
She was telling me she can't hold on till next Christmas to see me.
She was like, "I don't want to wait till Christmas" "to see you, 'cause I don't think I'll make it.
" Wow.
[Sniffling.]
You gotta bring it in for a hug, Ivette.
This is a hug time.
Come on, get in here.
Come on, girl.
Come on.
It's gonna be all right, now.
I definitely can feel your pain.
I understand that for sure.
When you have a commonality like that with another human being, it's, you know, it's it's pretty deep, and you feel for them.
Especially if you've felt it, you can understand it.
You don't want to see anyone go through pain when you know the pain.
It's hard.
Let's get back to calls, because all right, we'll do more calls.
All right, we'll do more calls.
Yeah, we're not done.
- We're not done.
- We have 295 people.
How will the employees react when they find out Barry is actually the boss? - I'm not Barry, actually.
- No.
I'm Eric Casaburi, the CEO and founder of Retro Fitness.
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
[Laughs.]
Got the same eyes.
And what will happen when he finally confronts Jacqueline? You're completely wrong about that, beca no, don't like, seriously, I don't there's no answer you could possibly say right now none that is going to be acceptable.
All the people that I've worked with, they think they've been called here to give feedback on whether or not I deserve to win my own gym.
And I still don't know what I'm gonna do about Jacqueline.
Hi.
So tell me about Barry.
Barry did seem nervous in the beginning, but I felt like he warmed up a lot.
Very rude, condescending.
- Really? - Yeah.
Yeah, Barry was probably nervous because Barry was afraid that maybe his wig would have moved.
Don't tell me you're Barry, please.
- I'm not Barry, actually.
- No.
I'm Eric Casaburi, the CEO and founder of Retro Fitness Okay.
Who was acting as Barry undercover, 'cause you're on Undercover Boss.
Really? So I made you clean all the dumbbells.
Oh, my gosh.
[Laughs.]
Are you serious right now? Got the same eyes.
[Laughs.]
Jacqueline.
Yes, Eric? You were my biggest fear of going undercover.
Why? The first thing that I took note of that was completely unacceptable was how you treated some of our members right in front of them.
How did I treat some of the members? Your payment's overdue.
No, no.
You gotta pay today.
- Yeah.
Nuh-uh, Jackie.
- Hello? No, listen.
Don't @#$% with me, dude.
First of all, you're coming at me, saying that I'm disrespectful to members, which is completely false, beca no, don't like, seriously, I don't there's no answer you could possibly say right now none Okay.
That is going to be acceptable.
Okay.
So you can sit here for 15 minutes and talk about this I won't, but, okay.
- Don't waste both our time.
- Okay.
Because it makes no sense that you would treat someone that way.
- None.
- Okay.
Some of the other things that were very noticeable to me I asked you specifically, "why are you dumping product down the drain?" There was extra shake left.
"Ah, no, it's just extra.
We throw that away.
" That's unacceptable.
That's worse than stealing in some cases, because it's money right down the drain, literally.
The toughest one I had is how you were speaking about the members.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
Or "they say this," or it told you a lot about me as a person? 'Cause you're completely wrong about that.
It told me about you as an employee.
I don't know you as a person.
'Cause you don't know me as a exactly.
I don't want to know you as a person.
Okay, well, you know what? That's unfortunate for you.
You're not my employee.
You're someone else's.
Tell me what you think about that, as an employee of the company, representing the company, how that behavior is.
I don't know what you want me to say.
Sorry? Like, I don't know what you want me to say in that situation.
All right, well, there's, uh, there's one other person that I want to be part of this conversation.
Hey, can you send him in? Thank you, sir.
- Hi, Jackie.
- Hi, Bob.
I think you may know who this is.
Yes, I know who it is.
Hi, Eric.
Bob, I called you in because you're my franchisee and Jacqueline's direct boss.
What I witnessed there was nothing shy of scary.
In fact, I left the job early.
I had to get the hell out of there.
I said, "I gotta call Bob.
" "I can't believe there's someone on this staff" "that's doing this at this club.
" You're aware of what he told me, right? No, yeah, I know everything, but, like, you you know the way No, because you know me, Bob.
Using language behind behind the desk? And do you ever see that? Do you ever see me do that? No, 'cause I don't do that! You did it in front of the CEO of the company.
But I didn't know it was him, obviously.
I wouldn't have done that.
I wouldn't have acted that way.
That makes it that makes it worse that you didn't know it was him.
Obviously, you wouldn't do it if it was him.
That club is my baby, and you know that.
I know, and I I go there when I'm sick.
I go there when I'm tired.
I drive 72 miles to get to that club every day.
Seriously, no, this needs to be, like, talked about without, like, the CEO of the company right in front of my face, staring at me.
I would never have an employee like that behind my counter.
You know that.
When I feel like I get stabbed in the back, there's a whole nother Bob.
So you got stabbed in the back? I can't make it any more clear.
I can't have you behind the counter like this.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm disappointed, Jackie.
We have to part ways.
There's nothing else I can do.
Thank you, Jacqueline.
I'm so @#$% pissed, honestly.
Bob, I have to thank you, man.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you for coming in.
Eric does not know what he's talking about.
I'm a good person.
I really am.
Like, I don't know how to show it any way more than I have.
And yeah, maybe I dropped @#$% Sorry! @#$% forbid me.
Seriously.
Like, I can't even deal.
Ivette, I had such a great experience working with you.
One thing I don't want to forget about that I just remembered, the billing issue with the telephone number.
Yes.
The billing company, they're calling them for a whole week, four or five times, they don't pick up the phone, they erase the number, which makes it so much harder for me.
We're gonna have that fixed for you right away.
- Thank you, thank you.
- I promise.
No, thank you.
You know, it was it was actually great to also get to know you on a personal level.
I know so well what you're going through with your mom.
What I'd like to do, I would like to pay for your trip to go see mom and spend as much time as you need there and not have to worry about anything.
Just focus on her.
Like, thank you.
Like, I don't even know what to say.
Thank you so much.
Ivette, I want to thank you.
What you give every day, you give it 100%.
But what I don't want to see is, I don't want to see you get burnt out.
So what I'd like to do is I'd like to also give you $10,000 for you and your fantastic man, who I met.
I want you both to go on a nice, long vacation.
Thank you Barry.
[Laughs.]
Ivette, in addition to that, what I'd like to do is, I'd like to give you $30,000 so when you get home, you and your fiance can start your new life together.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Like, a lot of people don't know that hard work actually pays off, and I hope, like, people are seeing this and realizing this, like, that they'll, like Thank you.
I'm excited.
I feel really good.
The fact that he even gave me the money to go see my mom, that's crazy.
Thank you.
I'm really happy and I'm really thankful.
He definitely, like, changed my life.
He definitely did.
I gotta tell you, Megan, the energy that you give off, it's uncoachable.
[Laughs.]
Yay! That was so good! Give me a high five for that.
Oh, gosh, you're a pro already.
I just went through that rough time, and it brought me down, but I got a job in a place that changed my life, so, like, it really doesn't get any better than that.
When you talked about you lost weight, and you said there's "you gotta see my before-and-afters"" I want to see a picture of your before and after.
- You do? - Do you have it? Yeah, I have some on my phone.
I want to see them.
Here's one here.
- Wow! - Yeah! - Holy cow! - I know.
- That is awesome.
- Yeah.
You know, I'd like to use those before-and-after pictures in some of our marketing, actually.
'Cause I think it was just it's inspiring.
- If you don't mind.
- Absolutely.
It'd be great to see a lot of people do the same thing as me.
[Laughs.]
Exactly.
Well, one of the things we talked about that really hit home for me was your personal life.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to give you $15,000 for you to find a place of your own and continue to build your independence.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
We also talked about you going to school, and you're clearly excited about your career.
Oh, my God.
Megan, I'd like to give you $40,000 Oh, my God.
To pay for your school loans Oh, my God.
And leave you finished with school debt-free.
[Crying.]
Oh, my God.
Thank you, God.
- Gotta finish.
- I will finish, I swear.
I'm on my way of making the Dean's list again.
Now that we're gonna have you loan-free, I'd like to give you $20,000, to just moving forward money.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my God! This is beyond my dreams.
I never thought that, a year and a half ago, when I was going through that, that I would have this right now and that I'd be able to live my life without any worry.
Can I hug you right now, please? - Yes, you can.
- Oh, my God! [Laughs.]
I went through that rough time, and I thought I would never just continue in life.
I didn't feel like living anymore, and now, I'm, like, here, and I have a chance to live and be happy and start my life.
Oh, my gosh.
This is so unreal.
[Exhales.]
It's been a long week.
On this journey, I saw some amazing things, met some amazing people.
You know, I also saw some things I wasn't happy about from some individuals that I felt didn't really fit into the Retro Fitness model.
I learned about the core values of always doing your best at everything you do from my mother, and I kind of approach business like that.
Perfection is something that we want to achieve, but it's an ongoing effort, so I'm excited to go back to work and get those things fixed.
[Upbeat music.]
Goes undercover as a reality show contestant looking to start his own gym.
You must be my contestant.
- I am.
- All right.
Well, nice to meet you.
My name's Barry.
No, you're gonna do it the way I told you.
The way you told me.
Okay.
Gotta wipe it down.
Good.
By working in the field, this boss finds it difficult not to sweat the small stuff It's not a cost-effective way to do this.
So much waste here.
Oh, boy.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
And big problems surface when one employee crosses the line.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
With some people, I just want to punch them in the face sometimes.
What will happen when he comes face to face with his worst nightmare? How many times do I have to tell you? Don't @#$% with me, dude.
The Retro Fitness CEO inside of me really wants to fix this right now.
Just wait, baby.
Just wait.
Find out next on Undercover Boss.
Undercover Boss 4x14 - Retro Fitness Original air date April 26, 2013 Headquartered in New Jersey, Retro Fitness provides gym memberships to more than 300,000 members Eight.
Scoring revenues of more than $100 million a year.
What's happening, Steph? Overseeing the 1,200 employees that keep this gym empire fit is one man.
I'm Eric Casaburi.
I'm the founder and CEO of Retro Fitness.
Retro Fitness started out of frustration.
I was operating gyms in the fitness industry, and I just felt that there was a niche that wasn't being filled.
And I just was truly passionate that there was a way to offer a high-end fitness experience associated with a really good price.
- Give me 20 reps.
- We've got personal training, a movie theater, tanning, a juice bar.
When I started doing $19.
99 memberships, people, you know, really liked us.
When the recession hit, we essentially became rock stars almost overnight.
We opened 15 clubs in our first year.
And then we did, like, 26 the next year.
Today, Retro Fitness has over 90 gyms with 300,000-plus members, and we employ more than 1,200 people.
It was a very effective business model that we launched at the right time.
So I was born in Staten Island, New York.
You know, Roman catholic, we're an Italian family, you know, church every Sunday.
My family was all blue-collar.
And I literally mean a blue collar, 'cause they're all cops and firemen.
All my uncles, my father.
So when we were growing up, you had to make a penny go really far.
You had to turn it into a dime.
As a kid, you know, mom was at every sporting event and dad was working.
That's what it was.
Dad's at work.
So I was a mama's boy.
When I was 11, 11 turning 12, that's when my mother was diagnosed with melanoma.
It would come and it would go, it would come and it would go, but then toward the end, when it came back, it came back.
And I remember my dad came in, and my brother followed behind him, and he sat us both on the bed, and in one sentence He said, "mommy's gone.
" And I was like, you know Like, my world just totally changed.
I mean life as I knew it was done.
I was, like, dumbfounded, totally 'cause I didn't think it would ever happen.
I didn't think those words would ever come out of his mouth or anyone's mouth.
And I was like, "wow.
" I miss her every day.
Most people at that time that were diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer had a three-year life span.
And she actually had a six-year span.
She never said no, and she was always willing to continue to fight.
And I think I grabbed the DNA part from her of there's no finish line, you fight till the end.
I think I'm motivated by Winning.
I got my first personal training certification in high school.
Then I gradually, you know, went through all of the ranks in the gym, and then went to college.
You know, the greatest thing that I took home from college was my wife.
I didn't take home a degree, but I got Kim, so that was a win.
When I'm hooked on doing something or setting a goal, there's nothing that I won't do or try.
There's just nothing I won't do.
It's my opinion it can be done.
- Okay.
- Let's get it done.
There's no doubt about it, I am definitely not your typical CEO.
We tell people right away, even when we interview them for a position here, the corporate culture here is unique.
I want you guys to see the new technology.
The engine runs only at one speed, and it's very high.
And if you can't keep up, then don't take the position.
No one will work for me or Retro Fitness unless they love it and love me.
Life is entirely too short to not do something you absolutely love.
My life today is it's pretty awesome.
All right.
Let's see what you got.
Oh, yeah! I'm married.
I've got four absolutely outstanding children.
And they're all awesome.
I mean, they're just really great kids.
They're super well-rounded.
Yeah! I think the hardest thing for me going undercover is probably gonna be being away from my family for so long.
Boo.
[Laughs.]
Wow.
I think one of the main reasons I want to go undercover is because we're at a critical point at Retro Fitness.
Is this gonna mess with my real hair? Oh, no, nothing is gonna happen to your real hair.
We're heading in on 100 gyms, and when we get to 250 or 500, anything that could be going wrong in the system at that level is much harder to get your arms around than it would be today.
I'm a little nervous about going undercover, but I've got this great disguise.
I've transformed into Barry Gauche, a down-on-his-luck guy competing on a reality show to win his own gym.
[Clicks tongue.]
Mom and dad think you've made it.
[Baby babbling.]
What's up? I swear I didn't know who that was.
I didn't even know it was you.
[Laughter.]
Daddy's going undercover.
And you're gonna look like that? Who is this guy? Do you know him? No.
Come on, guys.
Daddy has to go.
Grab the bags and get the door.
All right.
I'm extremely concerned about my brand.
I love my brand.
I'm passionate about my brand.
And I want what's best for my brand.
Bye bye.
I also know that there's things that happen at the micromanagement level that I don't get to see every day anymore.
I'm concerned that it might not meet my expectations and how I'm gonna handle that.
All: Bye, daddy.
Today, I'm working at the Retro Fitness in Easton, Pennsylvania, and I'll be working in sales.
Hello.
How are you? This is one of the jobs where I'm more concerned that I might overachieve than underachieve 'cause I always want to sign up every single member that comes close to Retro Fitness.
Unfortunately, I have to dumb it down.
I don't know how.
I may fail at that.
I'm not gonna lie.
- Hello.
- Welcome to Retro.
- How are you? - I'm looking for Megan.
- You found her.
- Wow.
You must be my contestant, right? I am.
All right, well, nice to meet you.
- My name's Barry.
- I'm gonna have you come around, and I'm gonna tell you all the cool stuff that we have going up here, okay? - Okay.
- When Barry first walked in, I noticed that his hair's a little disheveled, and it doesn't look like he did it this morning.
I think Barry needs to clean up a little bit and put some gel or hairspray in his hair, make sure that he looks presentable.
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Like, are you why are you opening a gym? Well, I'm in this contest thing, and it's like, gonna learn a lot of information, 'cause at the end of this bye-bye.
Have a good day.
At the end of the gig, we gotta win the show.
- That's the idea.
- Absolutely.
So right here is my favorite little handy-dandy microphone.
What do we do with that sucker? You talk to the members over the intercom.
That's powerful.
I'll talk about our sales up here, like say, "hey, guys, we have $12 T-shirts or a $10 T-shirt.
" "Come up here and get one.
" You're telling the members all the things they need to know.
Absolutely.
So I'm gonna have you make an announcement.
- Let me tell you what to say.
- Oh, me? - Yes.
- Wow.
Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
I'm gonna be anointed with the microphone.
So what you're gonna say is, "hey, from now until 7:00," "all shakes are gonna be $1 off," "so come up here and get your protein.
" Whew.
Can you say it to me real quick? Okay, attention, Retro members, from now until 7:00 P.
M.
, we're gonna be giving $1 off our Retro blends.
You can just say, "protein shakes.
" Protein shakes? They know? They know.
They got the vibe.
Just wondering if we should use the word "Retro blends," but okay.
I mean, you can, but, I mean, usually I just tend to say, "all of our protein shakes.
" I personally wrote some of the scripts that we use on the microphones.
I just think sometimes that, some of the women, they might not think a protein shake is for them.
Part of me trying to dumb it down, and it's not working.
I'm pulling on that e-brake hard, and nothing's happening.
We're just cruising along at 90.
They might think like a dude wants a protein shake, but a woman might say, "hey", "a Retro blend or a smoothie.
" I don't know.
Maybe that would sound I'm just throwing stuff out there.
- You're teaching me now.
- I got a contest to win.
I got a contest to win here.
You do have a contest to win, and we're definitely gonna win that.
Maybe Barry did his homework before he came in.
I was wondering about that.
Because I thought I was teaching him.
You're the master already.
You've got this.
- So flick that up.
- Okay.
And go for it.
Attention, Retro members.
From now until 7:00 P.
M.
, there's $1 off the Retro blends smoothie bar.
That's right.
$1 off.
Come get your protein on.
Yay! That was so good.
Give me a high five for that.
Yeah, I guess I should have waited to tell her all that.
I couldn't, though.
'Cause it's not really just a protein shake.
It is so much more.
My gosh, you're a pro already.
- Why am I teaching you? - This is great.
I don't know if Megan's gonna go home scratching her head, saying, "who the hell" "does this Barry guy think he is?" Or is just gonna go home and say, "yeah, that guy Barry" "had a couple of good ideas.
" All right.
What do we got? What's next? - I'm ready.
- Perfect.
All right.
We're gonna do something really cool.
- What are we gonna do? - I'm gonna teach you how to give tours.
- Okay.
- Okay? - Let's do that.
- All right.
So we're gonna try to close this deal, okay? - Sound good? - Do we bring this? - Huh? - This doesn't come? No, you leave that right there, okay? Hi.
How are you? Good.
How are you? - What's your name? - Chrissy.
Chrissy.
Have you ever visited us before? No, we were just kind of wanting to check it out, 'cause it's close.
I think Megan's got a lot of energy.
She loves to talk.
She's bubbly.
She's outgoing.
But I'm looking forward to seeing how she actually does on a tour.
So first is first.
We're gonna start over here.
We do have a lot of cardio equipment.
Treadmills down here, and also, if you like your own personal space, which I'm like that, I usually go up to the top.
We have a long line of treadmills.
- It's pretty cool, right? - Yeah, yeah.
And then in here you can come in here and do stretches.
We also have a lot of kettlebells here.
Part of the challenge, when you have so much energy like Megan does Do you want to do a tire flipping? No.
You get so caught up in wanting to talk to the member.
If you were wanting to do, like, maybe a yoga class she loves Retro so much, she just wants to keep telling people about it.
The challenge is, is when you want someone - to join our gym - Come in here.
We have to really listen more so than we want to be talking.
So I'm glad that you came here and visited us.
Are you thinking about joining with us? Um, I think that we would consider it.
Um, but my fiance is out of town on business, - so I would like to bring him - Oh.
And then we can make the decision.
- Okay, no, that's fine.
- Would that be cool? It is so difficult for me to not interject into the sales process when it's happening right in front of me.
Let me get you guys a business card and a flyer.
I'll be right back with you, okay? All right.
Cool.
Thanks.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
This is killing me.
This is killing me softly.
Are you thinking about joining with us? Um, like I said, yeah, we would, but, you know, I have to wait till he gets back - to make that decision really.
- Okay.
Well, we hope to hear from you soon, and we're happy that you're interested in joining our gym.
It is so difficult for me to not interject into the sales process when it's happening right in front of me that it's physically painful.
Tell your fiance to hurry back.
- Okay.
- Come back and join us.
I have to pick him up - at the airport tonight, so - All right.
I think, like, my blood pressure probably just spikes.
I start to sweat, um, and I gotta speak.
You know what they say.
The couples that train together - stay together.
- Yup.
Yup.
So he lands when? He lands tonight? Tonight.
Yeah.
9:30.
Maybe what you guys can do is you come and have a morning workout together, get you both here.
I think if you do that, two of youse coming together, hanging out, sharing a smoothie [Laughs.]
- What could be better? - How perfect.
Yeah.
Let's make a nice appointment to get them in here tomorrow.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- That'd be great.
- I mean, why wait? - To be honest, I was a little frustrated when Barry spoke up.
So we could do a free workout tomorrow - and then - Yeah.
Megan's all about giving away the free stuff.
I feel like if Barry were to train someone for his future business, he would just cross as bossy.
I can't wait to see you guys tomorrow.
- I'll be here.
- Okay.
- Great.
Great.
- Okay? - Nice meeting you.
- It was great to meet you.
Thanks for coming.
All the things that Megan did incorrectly in my assessment today are all easily fixed.
The things that she does on her own naturally, we could never train.
I would rather have the situation the scenario with Megan any day of the week because I know I can fix all of those little minor details.
They're they're minor flaws.
Either you have it or you don't.
You can't read a book and learn, you know, what you're doing out there.
It's so crazy.
It's a lot happening.
These places are busy.
Whoo! Sometimes I know, but it can be done.
- And, like, I seriously - Yeah.
I am forever grateful that I have this job here because - That's awesome.
- I don't mean to cry.
It's just like - no, that's okay.
Listen, just sitting across from someone that really loves their job that much, you have no idea how meaningful that really is.
It is.
Like, I've kind of had a really rough life, and getting here to this point was, like, the best part of my life.
My father, like, decided he didn't want anything to do with me, so I met this guy and decided to be a little rebel, and after I graduated, I told my mom, I said, "I'm leaving home and I'm living with him.
" And he became abusive, and I was too ashamed to call my mother for help.
And sometimes I would sneak out at night and sleep outside in downtown.
And it didn't matter to me if anything were to happen to me outside.
I just was tired of life.
And during that time, I gained a lot of weight.
Like, I was 155, and I went to 210 pounds, and, um - Wow.
- I really destroyed myself.
But then I came home, and my mom took me back in.
And I'm, like, forever thankful, and I owe the world to her.
And here's the best part, though.
Like, it just it gets so good after that, because I got accepted to penn state, and I was just like, "oh, my gosh.
" I'm beside myself.
And then I came here, and then I lost all that weight, and it was almost like a calling.
- I was like, "oh, my gosh.
" - Wow.
And it's just the biggest blessing I've ever had.
I'm gonna tell you this.
It's a great story of success.
- It is.
It is.
- You are a story of success.
You are you are a story of power.
You know, and it's a win.
- Yeah.
- That's awesome.
You know, it's very easy for someone like myself to get caught up in my own world.
I'm so thankful for, you know, moments like we had today because I kind of get to step outside of it and get my feet back on the ground in so many ways, and not just the Retro Fitness way.
I'm talking about as a human being.
I'm so proud of her.
And it makes me want to be a part of her success.
I want to help her succeed.
I want to see her cross the threshold.
Let me tell you this from experience that good things always, always happen - Always.
- To good people.
And you are a very good person.
Today, we're in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Retro Fitness, where we'll be working at the front desk.
It's a busy facility, so it would be my expectation that whoever's working is up for the task.
Hi.
How are you? The front desk position is really important.
My hope today is to see an energetic, enthusiastic individual that really cares about all the aspects of front desk being executed on exactly how we trained them.
- Hi.
How are you? - Hi.
- Is Jacqueline here? - That's me.
- That's you.
Hey, Jacqueline.
- Hi, how are you? I'm Barry.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
- You got your - I do, yes.
- Oh, there we go.
- I am ready.
- Want to come over this side? - Absolutely.
All right.
There's a lot of stuff to know - Okay.
- But it's not hard.
You want to you want to own it, manage it, right? - The gym? - Yes, yeah.
Okay, so that's even more important.
Like, me, I'm just a front desk.
So I just kind of sit here, say my "hey"s, "how are you?" - Walk around, do some of that.
- Right.
You know, but most of the time I'm kind of just like this.
Here.
All right.
Someone walks in.
Hey, how you doing? You use that while you work? - Yup.
- Wow.
- That's crazy.
- It's slow.
What else am I supposed to do? I find myself over here like this.
This.
Taking pictures of myself.
You can run your gym the way you want it to run.
You can have your employees not take out their phone and take selfies all day, but that's what I like to do.
I don't know.
I just do my thing.
If someone may have a question, maybe they might not approach you, because they think you're busy, you know, they don't want to interrupt your personal well, that's actually never happened to me.
People love to interrupt here.
People love to be obnoxious.
I'm not a @#$% slave.
I don't @#$% Work for you.
I don't know what to do.
With some people, I just want to punch them in the face sometimes.
Oh, that would be bad.
No, you'll get there.
You meet her, she seems very nice, you know, these big eyes and nice girl, and nice smile, and you think, "hey, all is right in the world.
" And then she opens her mouth, and it's just like, you know, the bats from hell start flying out.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
They don't kw how to use a machine, so they're over here looking like @#$% doing the machine.
And then they come up here, and they're like, "well, what does protein do?" Dude, the @#$%? You don't know what protein does? She certainly doesn't seem to like people very much.
We are in the people business.
There's just no other way to put it.
When you're here, you're representing us.
Okay, let's get to something important.
Do you want to do smoothies? Yeah, I think it's great.
They're really important.
This is the menu of how we make it.
It's super explanatory.
Like, you would be literally brain-dead if you can't get it.
So, if you look at that and can't understand it, then you should probably turn around and not do this.
All right, so go here, - scoop.
- Got it.
This is our peanut butter and chocolate.
Now, we're not supposed to put more than what it says on the menu.
And it says on the menu, "one pump.
" I always put 21/2.
We're not supposed to, but it tastes better, honestly.
The juice bar is on average inside of the gym.
It's one area of the gym that I really, really care about.
- So you would go one, six, go.
- Okay.
That makes a disgusting shake, honestly.
- Okay.
- So what I always do one and hold juice.
At some point, I realize that maybe we should have renamed it Jacqueline's juice bar, because it seems like she's got her own way of doing everything.
Fill it to the top, don't overflow it, because then you'll make a mess.
Put it in the sink.
- And that's a shake.
- That's the perfect shake.
I noticed that there was, like, extra in here.
Like, what do do you guys, like, make samples out of that? I dump it out.
You don't offer it to the member at all? - Nope.
Dump it out.
- Dump it out.
If they want it, they can take it, but if not, oh, well.
There is a cost associated with every ingredient that goes into that shake.
So when you're dumping that down the sink, you're just dumping money down the sink.
We could have sampled it, pass 'em out to a couple of the members that are out there.
There was definitely a better use for that than to watch it go down the sink.
Do you wanna show me how to make a shake just so I know before I let you go? - Sure.
- What would you like? - Okay.
- You said a dirty peanut? - Right? Okay.
- Yeah.
Are we doing it the way it says? No, you're gonna do it the way I told you.
The way you told me, okay.
So we want two of these from you, right? - That's not a full pump.
- Okay.
- How's that? - One more.
One more.
You gotta pick up the pace, dude.
- Come on.
- Picking up the pace.
- Here we go.
- Yeah.
Yeah.
[Chuckles.]
That's enough ice.
Okay.
I would normally hit the code, but okay, well, I'm telling you the way people like it.
- Okay.
- But if you don't want to listen to me, that's all good.
You don't have to win.
It's all good for me.
I would love to listen to you.
I just think that maybe we would go with the code, but go ahead.
Go with the code, dude.
Do it up.
First of all, Barry's @#$% awkward.
He's condescending.
He's not absorbing anything that I'm saying.
@#$% listen to me, 'cause I know what I'm doing, I know my @#$%.
How come this isn't punching? 'Cause you're probably doing it on the wrong side.
Oh, that is the reason why.
It's not rocket science.
It's a hole puncher.
- I know.
- Maybe if you listened to me, I don't know.
I'm gonna need it today.
I'm gonna @#$% kill him.
[Chuckles.]
So Berry slim? Sure.
Do you want protein in it or no? - Yes, please.
- Yeah, okay.
You want a little protein? Okay.
And this goes in the 16-ounce cup, I assume? It just happens to say No, you just do a full cup.
You do it in the full cup? You don't have to go by the book with every situation in your life.
[Chuckles.]
The menu says medium, though, doesn't it? Yeah, but I'm telling you this way.
Oh, well, then, that's why.
I forgot it was Jacqueline's juice bar.
Excuse me? I don't think Barry understands that I work here every single day, and I know what I'm doing.
I know my @#$%.
You don't have people skills, Barry, I'm sorry.
You're so condescending and rude to me, I really can't stand it.
Oh, I would never be.
Just wait, baby.
Just wait.
Yes.
- Today.
- Wow.
I'm gonna make you the best shake in the world right now.
Just do it, because you're taking way too long.
It has to be fast-paced.
I want you to stop talking.
[Groans.]
I'm never mean.
I'm not being mean.
Hey.
Okay, huh? Who the hell does this girl think she is? If one member has to experience that attitude, to me, that's one too many.
One pomegranate paradise.
Thank you very much.
You're very welcome.
I got you.
Oh, Hakim, hey! - Your payment - Huh? Your payment's overdue.
I know.
I'm gonna pay it.
I'm gonna pay it tomorrow.
No.
No.
You have to pay today.
- Nuh-uh, Jackie.
- Hello? No, listen.
How many times do I have to tell you? Don't @#$% with me, dude.
It's very frustrating for me to listen to this happen, have other people that can hear it in earshot some of the things that she's saying.
No, you listen to me.
Oh, my God.
I have told you this.
For the sake of the job, I don't want to blow my cover, but the Retro Fitness CEO inside of me really wants to fix this right now.
Okay, Jacqueline, I've taken all the information for one day I got it all down, so I'm gonna head out.
Got it all? All right.
We'll see.
We'll see what happens.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- At this point, it's my duty as the franchisor to contact my franchisee, have a conversation about Jacqueline and her future.
[Yawns.]
Derek, hey, I need you to we got to talk.
Like, you have to try to call me tonight.
If you can, just please call me.
I'm not sure how that's gonna go.
We have some big decisions to make.
[Sighs.]
Oh, man.
There's definitely a lot to digest and process over the last couple of days.
Time for dinner.
Dinner of champions.
Jacqueline is certainly a major liability for my company.
Just thinking that she's gonna be on another shift possibly, and she could be working again tomorrow, and the wrath of her's gonna occur to some of our members, it's really bothering the crap out of me.
[Blender whirring.]
I know without a shadow of a doubt that the owners of this facility would never want a person like that working in their club.
We have some things to figure out about Jacqueline and her future at Retro Fitness.
Today, I'm at the Retro Fitness in Yonkers, where I'll be working with the general manager.
Sign in, guys.
System is up.
The Yonkers location is in a really dense market, so it's a busy club.
A lot of activity happens here.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
After working with Jacqueline, I can only hope that today won't be like yesterday, so I'm looking forward to getting to work with this employee.
Oh, thank you.
- Hi.
- Are you Ivette? - Yes.
- Hey.
- How you doing? - Hi, I'm Barry Gauche.
- Ivette.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you as well.
I'm just gonna show you around.
I'm gonna show you our cardio deck, - our machines.
- Great.
- So let's go.
- Okay.
Barry was definitely a little older than what I thought he was gonna be.
And I was happy at the fact that he was actually fit, which is not like a fat guy trying to put up a gym.
This is all really nice stuff.
Do you see the cleanness of it? - You know, it's yeah.
- Did you notice it? You can't help but not.
That's interesting.
Okay, okay.
We work really hard on that.
Yeah, you must pay attention to that.
We work really hard on that.
These are my dumbbell racks.
What do I do here? Let's see.
They're definitely dirty.
These right here are called wipes.
Isn't there a spray that you guys could buy for that? - No.
- Got it.
So now what we're gonna do is we're actually gonna go - through each one.
- Okay.
Through the whole thing.
Ivette, she's a little bit of an Alpha.
She has her system of cleaning the dumbbell racks.
It's it's not perfect, in my opinion.
You think when you have your own place you're gonna get, like, a spray to do it, or I got to imagine if you have a diluted solution that you could probably add water to, - which I think I've seen - Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but then you still have to go through it, though.
You still got to use your towels.
You're gonna spray it, and what's gonna happen? You got to wipe it down.
Well, wouldn't you use a rag, though? Yeah.
I believe there is a more efficient and less expensive way to do that, and the tasks still get done to a very high degree.
I'm gonna go check on the staff real quick.
I'll be right back, okay? I will be right here.
I know you will.
Okay.
You would definitely want to do this task with a rag, not with these wipes.
This is not a cost-effective way to do this.
- What is he doing now? - Still on the dumbbells.
He's gonna be there for a while.
What do you have him doing? Cleaning everything how you do it.
You know how you take 'em off and then clean around? Yeah.
Okay, yeah.
There's so much waste here with this method.
Might as well can learn how to do everything.
The biggest offender is right in that little crevice.
Oh, boy.
Barry, are you sweating? No way.
Sweat? I only glow.
Good.
You see, with the spraying, what you would do is, you would spray it and think that's done.
With these Oh, no, when I said a spray, I mean, spray it, take a rag, and drag.
Then you take a dry rag, go behind it, shake it like that, and that residue you just got, you won't get.
I'm kind of, like, insulted.
Yeah, the wipes work, and they're just fine, and we're sanitizing this right now.
That's what we're doing here at Retro of Yonkers.
What I want to do is I want to go over some phone calls with you.
These phone calls that we're making, these are delinquencies.
Yonkers, it's sad to say, it's a whole different demographic here.
"A," people around here don't pay their cell bill on time, you can disconnect it and then put it back and a whole bunch of stuff.
So let's say the billing company, they're calling them for a whole week, four or five times, they don't pick up the phone, they erase the number, which makes it so much harder for me.
- So the billing company - Mm-hmm.
Is deleting a number out of your system.
Yes.
Once it doesn't work once or twice, they actually delete it.
That should never happen.
I think we should at least keep the number in the system saying marking it, "this number's been deactivated.
" I would imagine that could probably be fixed with a phone call or two from someone.
No.
We've tried.
I mean, we've tried hey.
How you doing? - How you doing? - This is my fiance.
Hey, how are you? I'm Barry.
- That's Barry.
- Nice to meet you.
We were just going over everything.
- It's a lot.
- Yeah.
Yeah, he'll tell you, we try to go on trips and [Laughter.]
Yeah, I could imagine that.
Sometimes I'll go home, cook, and come back downstairs.
- You live in this building? - Yeah, I do.
So you have, like, the shortest commute in the world, which is probably actually worse - Which is horrible.
- Yeah, it is.
Because not only you don't get called, they expect you to probably come on in and fix something, right? Right, no, like, I have "Retro" right here.
Living in the building where the gym is, that's crazy.
I came to see if you wanted something to eat or something.
No, I'm okay.
There was probably a time when I wished that I could have lived upstairs from my gym.
I may be divorced right now, if that was the case, but anyone who's doing something at a high level for a long time, you gotta unplug the battery for a second and just let it recharge.
Are you from this area? Did you grow up around here? No, I'm from Miami.
- Are you really? - Yeah.
- Get out of here.
- Uh-huh, yeah.
- How'd you wind up up here? - He's from here.
What about your family? Where are they? - My mom lives in Italy.
- What? - Yeah.
- Your mom's in Italy? - Yeah, she is.
- What's she doing there? She got deported back to Italy.
Do you get to see her? I don't get to see her as often, but I need to make an effort to go see her now, 'cause she's sick.
What's the matter? She has lupus.
Yeah, she's had it for a while, for, like, 28 years.
She's a fighter, though, and God willing, she'll be good.
Wow.
My mother passed away when I was young.
What did your mom have that she died of? - Melanoma.
Skin cancer.
- Yeah? Mm-hmm.
And how old were you? I was, uh, 16 when she passed away.
But I gotta tell you, I think what you're doing now is probably harder than what I was doing, because, at a different level, you don't get to be there and and, you know it's been like, I don't feel like I got to enjoy my mom as much as I wanted to enjoy her, though.
She was telling me she can't hold on till next Christmas to see me.
She was like, "I don't want to wait till Christmas" "to see you, 'cause I don't think I'll make it.
" Wow.
[Sniffling.]
You gotta bring it in for a hug, Ivette.
This is a hug time.
Come on, get in here.
Come on, girl.
Come on.
It's gonna be all right, now.
I definitely can feel your pain.
I understand that for sure.
When you have a commonality like that with another human being, it's, you know, it's it's pretty deep, and you feel for them.
Especially if you've felt it, you can understand it.
You don't want to see anyone go through pain when you know the pain.
It's hard.
Let's get back to calls, because all right, we'll do more calls.
All right, we'll do more calls.
Yeah, we're not done.
- We're not done.
- We have 295 people.
How will the employees react when they find out Barry is actually the boss? - I'm not Barry, actually.
- No.
I'm Eric Casaburi, the CEO and founder of Retro Fitness.
Okay.
Oh, my gosh.
[Laughs.]
Got the same eyes.
And what will happen when he finally confronts Jacqueline? You're completely wrong about that, beca no, don't like, seriously, I don't there's no answer you could possibly say right now none that is going to be acceptable.
All the people that I've worked with, they think they've been called here to give feedback on whether or not I deserve to win my own gym.
And I still don't know what I'm gonna do about Jacqueline.
Hi.
So tell me about Barry.
Barry did seem nervous in the beginning, but I felt like he warmed up a lot.
Very rude, condescending.
- Really? - Yeah.
Yeah, Barry was probably nervous because Barry was afraid that maybe his wig would have moved.
Don't tell me you're Barry, please.
- I'm not Barry, actually.
- No.
I'm Eric Casaburi, the CEO and founder of Retro Fitness Okay.
Who was acting as Barry undercover, 'cause you're on Undercover Boss.
Really? So I made you clean all the dumbbells.
Oh, my gosh.
[Laughs.]
Are you serious right now? Got the same eyes.
[Laughs.]
Jacqueline.
Yes, Eric? You were my biggest fear of going undercover.
Why? The first thing that I took note of that was completely unacceptable was how you treated some of our members right in front of them.
How did I treat some of the members? Your payment's overdue.
No, no.
You gotta pay today.
- Yeah.
Nuh-uh, Jackie.
- Hello? No, listen.
Don't @#$% with me, dude.
First of all, you're coming at me, saying that I'm disrespectful to members, which is completely false, beca no, don't like, seriously, I don't there's no answer you could possibly say right now none Okay.
That is going to be acceptable.
Okay.
So you can sit here for 15 minutes and talk about this I won't, but, okay.
- Don't waste both our time.
- Okay.
Because it makes no sense that you would treat someone that way.
- None.
- Okay.
Some of the other things that were very noticeable to me I asked you specifically, "why are you dumping product down the drain?" There was extra shake left.
"Ah, no, it's just extra.
We throw that away.
" That's unacceptable.
That's worse than stealing in some cases, because it's money right down the drain, literally.
The toughest one I had is how you were speaking about the members.
Members, they're they're literally stupid.
They don't know anything.
Or "they say this," or it told you a lot about me as a person? 'Cause you're completely wrong about that.
It told me about you as an employee.
I don't know you as a person.
'Cause you don't know me as a exactly.
I don't want to know you as a person.
Okay, well, you know what? That's unfortunate for you.
You're not my employee.
You're someone else's.
Tell me what you think about that, as an employee of the company, representing the company, how that behavior is.
I don't know what you want me to say.
Sorry? Like, I don't know what you want me to say in that situation.
All right, well, there's, uh, there's one other person that I want to be part of this conversation.
Hey, can you send him in? Thank you, sir.
- Hi, Jackie.
- Hi, Bob.
I think you may know who this is.
Yes, I know who it is.
Hi, Eric.
Bob, I called you in because you're my franchisee and Jacqueline's direct boss.
What I witnessed there was nothing shy of scary.
In fact, I left the job early.
I had to get the hell out of there.
I said, "I gotta call Bob.
" "I can't believe there's someone on this staff" "that's doing this at this club.
" You're aware of what he told me, right? No, yeah, I know everything, but, like, you you know the way No, because you know me, Bob.
Using language behind behind the desk? And do you ever see that? Do you ever see me do that? No, 'cause I don't do that! You did it in front of the CEO of the company.
But I didn't know it was him, obviously.
I wouldn't have done that.
I wouldn't have acted that way.
That makes it that makes it worse that you didn't know it was him.
Obviously, you wouldn't do it if it was him.
That club is my baby, and you know that.
I know, and I I go there when I'm sick.
I go there when I'm tired.
I drive 72 miles to get to that club every day.
Seriously, no, this needs to be, like, talked about without, like, the CEO of the company right in front of my face, staring at me.
I would never have an employee like that behind my counter.
You know that.
When I feel like I get stabbed in the back, there's a whole nother Bob.
So you got stabbed in the back? I can't make it any more clear.
I can't have you behind the counter like this.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm disappointed, Jackie.
We have to part ways.
There's nothing else I can do.
Thank you, Jacqueline.
I'm so @#$% pissed, honestly.
Bob, I have to thank you, man.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you for coming in.
Eric does not know what he's talking about.
I'm a good person.
I really am.
Like, I don't know how to show it any way more than I have.
And yeah, maybe I dropped @#$% Sorry! @#$% forbid me.
Seriously.
Like, I can't even deal.
Ivette, I had such a great experience working with you.
One thing I don't want to forget about that I just remembered, the billing issue with the telephone number.
Yes.
The billing company, they're calling them for a whole week, four or five times, they don't pick up the phone, they erase the number, which makes it so much harder for me.
We're gonna have that fixed for you right away.
- Thank you, thank you.
- I promise.
No, thank you.
You know, it was it was actually great to also get to know you on a personal level.
I know so well what you're going through with your mom.
What I'd like to do, I would like to pay for your trip to go see mom and spend as much time as you need there and not have to worry about anything.
Just focus on her.
Like, thank you.
Like, I don't even know what to say.
Thank you so much.
Ivette, I want to thank you.
What you give every day, you give it 100%.
But what I don't want to see is, I don't want to see you get burnt out.
So what I'd like to do is I'd like to also give you $10,000 for you and your fantastic man, who I met.
I want you both to go on a nice, long vacation.
Thank you Barry.
[Laughs.]
Ivette, in addition to that, what I'd like to do is, I'd like to give you $30,000 so when you get home, you and your fiance can start your new life together.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Like, a lot of people don't know that hard work actually pays off, and I hope, like, people are seeing this and realizing this, like, that they'll, like Thank you.
I'm excited.
I feel really good.
The fact that he even gave me the money to go see my mom, that's crazy.
Thank you.
I'm really happy and I'm really thankful.
He definitely, like, changed my life.
He definitely did.
I gotta tell you, Megan, the energy that you give off, it's uncoachable.
[Laughs.]
Yay! That was so good! Give me a high five for that.
Oh, gosh, you're a pro already.
I just went through that rough time, and it brought me down, but I got a job in a place that changed my life, so, like, it really doesn't get any better than that.
When you talked about you lost weight, and you said there's "you gotta see my before-and-afters"" I want to see a picture of your before and after.
- You do? - Do you have it? Yeah, I have some on my phone.
I want to see them.
Here's one here.
- Wow! - Yeah! - Holy cow! - I know.
- That is awesome.
- Yeah.
You know, I'd like to use those before-and-after pictures in some of our marketing, actually.
'Cause I think it was just it's inspiring.
- If you don't mind.
- Absolutely.
It'd be great to see a lot of people do the same thing as me.
[Laughs.]
Exactly.
Well, one of the things we talked about that really hit home for me was your personal life.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to give you $15,000 for you to find a place of your own and continue to build your independence.
Thank you so much.
Oh, my God.
We also talked about you going to school, and you're clearly excited about your career.
Oh, my God.
Megan, I'd like to give you $40,000 Oh, my God.
To pay for your school loans Oh, my God.
And leave you finished with school debt-free.
[Crying.]
Oh, my God.
Thank you, God.
- Gotta finish.
- I will finish, I swear.
I'm on my way of making the Dean's list again.
Now that we're gonna have you loan-free, I'd like to give you $20,000, to just moving forward money.
[Laughs.]
Oh, my God! This is beyond my dreams.
I never thought that, a year and a half ago, when I was going through that, that I would have this right now and that I'd be able to live my life without any worry.
Can I hug you right now, please? - Yes, you can.
- Oh, my God! [Laughs.]
I went through that rough time, and I thought I would never just continue in life.
I didn't feel like living anymore, and now, I'm, like, here, and I have a chance to live and be happy and start my life.
Oh, my gosh.
This is so unreal.
[Exhales.]
It's been a long week.
On this journey, I saw some amazing things, met some amazing people.
You know, I also saw some things I wasn't happy about from some individuals that I felt didn't really fit into the Retro Fitness model.
I learned about the core values of always doing your best at everything you do from my mother, and I kind of approach business like that.
Perfection is something that we want to achieve, but it's an ongoing effort, so I'm excited to go back to work and get those things fixed.
[Upbeat music.]