(Twilight zone theme plays)
I'm part owner of a GNC and I manage my establishment as well. You're located in VA and I'm on the other side of the US. I'm 23 too. I have a Bachelors of Science in Dietetics and Food and Nutritional Science and a R.D.
Quote:
Originally Posted by narcsarge
I am not so sure coming on a BB'ing forum and espousing that one is a Manager of a GNC is going to win too many friends. Most of us have had the wonderful experience of a pimpley faced 18yr old try and sell the "latest and greatest" and yet he looks like a twig and swears by Weider Weight Gainer!
No thanks kid! I'll just plod through life reading, lifting, and learning from guys that have made the mistakes (as I have), are big as a house, and learned what works and what doesn't...
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I'm going to have to side with narcsarge here. I don't have any of the younger ones in my store giving out advice except myself and my asst. manager. The other three employees I have are a young lady and two fellas who are 20, 21 and 22. I tend to let the older one do his own thing more ofte because he's been with us for a longer period of time and he's very advanced in his studies. He's doing a double major so it's taken him a bit longer to finish but he's well on his way to becoming a very successful member of society with the fields he's going into.
The other two I tend to encourage them to listen more often than advise. The girl understands better and explains herself better than the younger fella but I don't treat either of them differently. I try to get them to stick with the more commonly recommended brands unless a customer comes in knowing what he wants to buy. At the end of the month, our stock is pretty evened out.
I'm going to be honest with you all here right about now. As a manager, I try to do my best to give solid advice based on research but also throwing in some of my own opinions based on experience too. There are many products in my store that are completely bogus and make absurd claims that are minimally backed up by research. What I always suggest is whey protein isolate. No concentrate needed, just good ol' isolate and a multivitamin with 100% of every vitamin and mineral. If you want to supplement with herbs, get them seperately. When you pack too much in one or even two pills, you're bound to be pissing out a lot of it. I'm also a big advocate in fish oil and I prefer the liquid kind. I began supplementing with 3 grams and have moved my way up to 20, even 30 grams at times. It all comes down to your budget but those are definitely the big 3 essentials I advise everyone who comes into my store. That and creatine once the individual has gotten the hang of things and seen results, usually6 months into training depending on consistency and things like that.
The GNC brand weight gainers are an extreme marketing ploy and quite frankly, an abuse of the lack of education of those who come into my store to buy things like that. It is not feasible to assume that someone who is 5'10 and weighing 120, is going to be able to able to efficiently utilize 1000 calories (whether it be in powder or wh ole food) in one sitting. I let my customers make their initial choices and I sort of give them some rope to work with. Most of them wise up and begin asking more questions and that's where I step in and say, "Well, here's where you royally messed up...".
What I know, I contribute to my lifting, listening, and reading as well. I like to read on-line articles a lot but I also like to read books and the more logic-based magazines. Even then, I carefully filter out all that information. There's nothing wrong with giving advice when you know something, but it never hurt anyone to sit back and listen. Even the wise men weren't born wise or became wise by constantly talking.