General Nutrition Center

Very knowledgeable and helpful staff. I come here for all my supplements and health/​Fitness advice and have never been steered wrong, Highly recommended!

There are two types of people will venture into a supplement store. You have your newbies who may be relatively new to fitness supplements and health products. They stumble in with some vague goal of some sort and end up walking out with shiniest tub (s) of pixie dust that will make their wildest dreams come true… or at least that’s what one of the employees claimed.
And then you have those who have been working out and have been supplementing for years, have gotten to know their bodies, realized what works/doesn’t work for them but most importantly, have done enough research/​experience to realize what’s just a fad/​over-​hyped and what’s legit. They’ll probably walk into the store, avoid eye contact with the snake oil salesmen of the establishment and have the name of what they’re looking for along with brand, flavor, size and price.
I am the latter. Walked into this GNC after my lunch to see how much my favorite brand of good ol’ generic protein was going for. The guy at the desk immediately asked me how he could help. I said that I was fine and that I was just looking to see if they had what I was looking for to compare in price to a tub of it I had seen at CVS the day before. Yes, CVS — I buy some straight up generic protein. (And I know GNC tends to be overpriced on everything, but somehow, on occasion, I have stumbled upon a sale/​discount/​most likely mistake that has made it cheaper than even the internetz)
Immediately, he inquires about my fitness goals. Um, training to survive the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE? Duh! Obviously, I kept that to myself but honestly, a stupid question deserves a stupid answer. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t want to add mass, be strong, lose fat, feel healthy slash ALL OF THE ABOVE. But before he could let lose another inquiry, I re-​affirm that I am only here to see if they have X in stock and see how much they’re selling it for.
At that point, any good employee would have let me carry on with my quest at hand. Perhaps, looked to see if they had it in stock and if they did, tell me the secret of how to get it at half price. And if not in stock, offered a substitute on what I was looking for. But would have taken the hint from the fact that I fill up my slim collared shirt pretty well enough in the right places that I probably know my way around the gym and have some experience around supplements and that bullshitting me and «selling» me on some recently discovered variation of creatine would be futile and honestly insulting to a fellow gym-​rat.
But nope. He starts telling me that I’m not making the gains I want and starts «selling» me on test boosters and a fat loss herb and omega 3 pills. Once again, I tell him that I’m happy with what I’m using, it’s working for me and restate the mission at hand. He then tells me about a dude from Southborough who he sold to who put on 20 lbs of muscle in a month… and implied that I was doing it all wrong. I start rolling my eyes at this point and refuting the overhyped benefits of his aforementioned products. He tells me that this supplements is his job and that he’s just offering free advice and that I should take it since its free. What? I tell him it’s really not what I want and I like to do my own research before putting random stuff into my body. He tells me that since they’re plant-​based and all-​natural, it means that they’re all safe. Wrong again. And then, in the most condescending and demeaning manner ever, he tells me that he’s seen people like me shut down when offered help, but if I was willing to be open-​minded, I should have an «honest discussion» with him of what I need to do if want to reach my goals. Thankfully, an elder gentleman appeared out of nowhere with a question about laxatives that allowed me to disappear before the discussion became a confrontation. Guys like this are the reason why I avoid going to supplement stores and end up buying online.
I’d also avoid Southborough as well. A dude gained 20 lbs of muscle in a month after consuming a plethora of pills? I’ve seen all the movies — I know where this is going. The zombies will begin in Southborough.