Hey, ever been perusing the flat screens at Best Buy and got the sudden urge to have a go on the yoga mat? All right, well what if there were yoga mats right across the aisle? Along with pedometers, treadmills and stationary bikes. Consider yourself in luck because starting today the mega electronics chain will be offering all your favorite exercise accouterments!
Of more than 1,000 stores nationwide, 40 in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas will offer equipment related to running, walking, swimming, yoga and other activities, including pedometers, special MP3 players, yoga mats, scales and blood pressure monitors. They also will offer treadmills, stationary bikes and elliptical machines. In some locations, customers will be able to try out the equipment. Products also available online.
Fun! Gotta diversify these days. No word on the Geek Squad exercise expertise, but we can picture it now… “free yoga classes every Sunday morning with the Yoga Dork Crew!” ha.
By the way, they already have all the DVDs and music…why not add the mats? So far it’s mostly the familiar Go-Fit and Gaiam brands and they’re all about $20 bucks.
I bought my first yoga mat, which is only now falling apart and getting un-sticky enough that I’m thinking it has to be replaced soon, at a Wegmans supermarket eight years ago. So, if Best Buy’s selling them now, that’s cool with me (and I can only hope that, unlike most yoga studios, they carry mats that are longer than 68 inches…).
I bought my first mat in 1998 at the university gym where I took my first class. They bought a big roll, cut it, and sold it to us students. Good quality. I still have that now-worn mat, washed countless times and still part of my rotation. (See my initiatory blog post for more on my fave mat brand: http://yogaspy.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/best-sticky-mat/.)
So, I’m fine with random sellers of mats. BUT I would hate to see lots of people buying mats (because they’re cheap) that they never use. It’s bad enough that committed yogis are using unbiodegradable mats, but if kept for over a decade and frequently used, at least they had longevity and purpose. If not…