Some Weight Watchers members who attend a weekly meeting in suburban Countryside are speaking out over the closure of their location.
"The whole reason why we do this is for support and to hold ourselves accountable," said Barb Ebersold, a Weight Watchers member who attends the Countryside meeting.
Shelly Burke is one of several members who received an email from Weight Watchers, explaining the Countryside studio will close Saturday, March 25, 2023.
"It was near standing room only when we were having our Saturday meetings. We couldn't understand why they were closing us," Burke said.
Maria Bucur from Berwyn also attends the Countryside workshops.
“Obviously if a membership group is getting down to 10 or 12 people, Weight Watchers has to look at that and say OK, this isn't really economical and make those decisions, but we have, I think, over 130 members that meet at Countryside, so I'm speaking up for us and nationally any other meeting that has strong membership,” Bucur said.
In an email response to NBC Chicago’s questions about the closure and others nationwide, a Weight Watchers spokesperson wrote, "In the U.S., we will be rebalancing our Workshop footprint and significantly reducing our fixed lease studio count, but we will retain approximately 100 fixed locations, shifting workshop delivery to flexible third party, or Studio@ locations, bringing that total to approximately 725."
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"Overall, in-person workshops will continue to be widely accessible, through a mix of Studios, Studio@s and our extensive calendar of Virtual Workshops," the spokesperson continued.
The members we spoke with, however, do not want to attend virtual meetings.
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"I don't want to be behind a screen with 300 other people listening like a podcast," Bucur said.
"It's just not the same. We need that support. We need the physical hand holding, we need those physical hugs. That's what's important to us," Ebersold said.
Along with a shift in location strategy, earlier this month, WW International bought Sequence, a telehealth prescription service that gives members access to Ozempic and Wegovy, weight loss medications that have skyrocketed in popularity.
"A lot of people feel that they're trying to go like, Oh, you can do a drug now instead of going to a meeting or you can do virtual. It's like, nobody wants to do the virtual," Burke said.
"Despite the timing, these two actions were not linked and one did not trigger the other," the company spokesperson said. "They were two independent decisions made in the best interest of consumers and members to ultimately grow our business and thrive far beyond 60 years."
Several members from the Countryside location signed this change.org petition hoping to keep the Countryside location from closing.
"Please Weight Watchers, do not close these critical meetings, in-person meetings for your members. We rely on it," Bucur said.
