Where to Purchase a Treadmill?

Businesses That Sell Treadmills - Who Can You Trust?

Treadmills have saturated the marketplace and can be purchased at numerous locations. Below is a quick review of places that sell treadmills.

Mass Merchant Retail Stores

These are stores are like Wal-Mart, Sears and Costco. Tend to have low-end models. Salespeople generally don't have a clue. Mostly Icon products (NordicTrack, ProForm, Image, Weslo). In most cases you can't even try the treadmill.

Mass Merchant Sporting Goods Stores

These are stores like Sports Authority and Dick's Sporting. They use to carry only low-end models, but lately they are also carrying mid-range treadmills. Mostly Icon products, but lately you will also find Keys treadmills. Sole is sold at Dick's Sporting. The salespeople are better informed than at mass merchant stores, but they are limited in their knowledge.

I went to Dick's to try out some machines. In the course of a half hour a salesperson never showed up, even after they were paged. I saw one prospective customer walk away.

These stores tend to have a terrible service record, which is reflected in their store reviews on Shopping.com.

Fitness Specialty Stores

They carry a variety of home fitness equipment, including treadmills, elliptical trainers, home gyms and weights. The salespeople tend to be more knowledgeable, but usually work on commission. You can expect them to try and upsell you. The more you spend the more they make. At least you'll get someone's attention.

These stores carry mid-range and high-end products. It is the specialty stores the sell premium treadmills that exceed $3,000, like True, Precor, Star Trac and Landice.

What can be said about fitness specialty stores is they normally excel at customer service.

Purchase Online

In addition to the brick and motor retail stores, there are a variety of places to purchase treadmills online. There is one distinct advantage to purchasing online, you avoid paying taxes if the online business is not located in your state. In some instances you can save money in comparison to purchasing from a retail store.

Mass Merchant Retail and Sporting Goods Stores

In the last couple of years all of the biggies have jumped aboard the Internet gravy train. Generally their sites lack detailed information, and if you call don't expect to get a person who has any knowledge about treadmills. Most have poor customer service records.

Sporting Goods Retailers

There are a number of sites like Megafitness.com, FitnessBlowout.com and Bigfitness.com who sell a variety of treadmill brands online. In most cases the treadmills are drop shipped by the manufacturer and all future service issues are handled by the manufacturers. Basically these retailers make the sale and that is the last you will deal with them. Service is handled by the manufacturer. You can get some good prices, since they do not have the expense of a retail store. Like the fitness specialty stores these salespeople are more informed, but they most likely are on commission. They will be pushy.

Manufacturer's Sites

All of the treadmill manufacturers have their own web sites. Most do not sell direct, since they do not want to compete with their dealers. There are a several of companies that do sell direct and they include Smooth Fitness Sole, Nautilus and several of the Icon subsidiaries, including Nordic Track, ProForm, Weslo and Reebok.

Smooth Fitness was one of the first companies to sell treadmills online. They started out by selling private labeled treadmills built by Keys and Spirit. In the last several years they've been selling their own products that are built in Taiwan and China. In fact, most American manufacturers are now outsourcing their production to the Pacific Rim.

Sole Treadmills sells direct and at www.Dickssportinggoods.com. Sole is an excellent machine with one of the best warranties in the industry. Buy direct through www.Soletreadmills. Dick's has terrible customer reviews on Shopping.com.

NordicTrack Treadmills can be purchased direct and they vary their sales weekly. Compare the prices and features and you can often get an excellent deal.