I go into the locker room at my gym and every other locker has stuff in it but no lock on the outside (lockers are first come, first served daily usage only). Who started this? Hey pal, I really don’t give a shit if someone steals your stuff, but I hate opening a locker only to find someone’s stuff already in it. It’s annoying. How much trouble is bringing a lock in? I know what you’re thinking, “I’ll forget the combo.” Really? You come here a couple of times a week, and somehow you’re gonna just up and forget it someday? Bring a key lock. Your grubby gym shorts have no pockets to keep the key in, or you’re worried about forgetting it? Keep the key around your neck with your gym id; that way, you can’t get into the gym without your key, so you ccan’t forget it. Been doing this for years. Worried about some impossible series of events that somehow prevent you from getting into whatever lock you put on your locker? Every gym I’ve ever worked out on has a big honkin’ pair of bolt cutters for just such occasions.
They’ll be the loudest person demanding cavity searches from management, when their wallet is missing.
The gym I go to has a policy that people are not permitted to bring their own locks in. If you want to lock your locker, you need to rent a lock (and a locker) from the gym itself.
The reasoning behind this is that the gym wants a certain number of “open” lockers. If they allow people to bring in their own locks, the end up with a high percentage of the lockers being claimed by people with locks - they don’t just lock 'em while they work out, they decide it’s their locker, and leave the lock on 24/7. They also run into the problem of people abandoning the locker. They lock it, their enthusiasm for the gym fades, and the gym has a locker that noone else can use and the person who has it locked comes to the gym once a month. A rental fee cuts down on this kind of behavior.
My gym has solved this with a rigid “no overnight” policy for lockers (exception for staff). ANy locks left on after the gym closes are cut off and you have to retrieve your belongings from the desk when you next visit.
I’m one of the people you are railing against and meanwhile, I see your point.
But, for me the benefits (saving about a minute in the morning, which could be helpful in getting to work on time!) outweigh the costs (someone could possibly steam the five dollars that I have in my wallet.
Been doing it for years, no one has ever stolen anything from my locker. Maybe I’ve been lucky. I use a generally undesireable locker that no one would tend to open unless the gym was really, really, really crowded, which it never has been.
What happens if someone does steal your stuff, though? Do you keep quite about it, or do you report it to the management? 'Cuz if you do the latter, then with all due respect, you’re creating an inconvenience for a lot of other people as well.
Not to mention that providing convenient theft opportunities could tend to encourage theives to become more adventurous.
This happens a lot at my gym too. I consider it odd, but not an inconvenience. After all, the locker is just as occupied whether it has a lock on it or not. I don’t lose more than a second or two when I open a locker and discover someone’s stuff in it.
I use a key lock, and tie the key to my shoelace.
If someone takes my five bucks, I would probably report it so that they knew about it, but it would be my own damn fault.
Gah! I hate this too. I don’t care if you don’t want to lock your stuff up, but I get pissed off when I open 5 lockers in a row with someone elses stuff in it. I started to just leave the door wide open so that other people wouldn’t have to waste their time trying to find an available locker.
I’ve seen some people put a coat hanger where the lock goes and I think that’s fine. They don’t have to be bothered with a lock and I don’t have to be bothered with guessing what’s behind door #1.
Our lockers include keys. Saves a lot of trouble. Half size lockers are available if you wish to store stuff. They require a lock.
One guy we play racketball with does not trust them. he leaves his wallet in the court . It has been taken twice. No one who uses the lockers has has been robbed.
What about my inconvenience? It once took me 10 minutes to find an empty locker because of the bozos who do the “no-lock” thing. I guess I have the 10 minutes to spare but you don’t?!!!
My gym will cut off all locks at closing time. I’m friends with some of the employees; they average 2 cut-offs a month. Hardly a problem.
I have half a mind to swap the wallets between some of the jerks who do this.
Give them a little inconvenience for my inconvenience.
Yeah. Look folks, you may be saving yourselves a minute or two, but you’re wasting other people’s time as well.
When I still had a gym membership, I hated the no-lock people. They always grab the most desirable lockers, too, so you think you’ve scored a great locker, only to find that it’s stuffed full of someone’s dirty underwear and smelly damp towel. I was always temped to take all the stuff out of the locker and put in another locker farther down the row. Just to scare the no-lock dude into finally visiting the hardware store and spend all of five bucks on a cheap padlock.
(I’d then put my cloths in yet another locker in a different part of the locker room 
)
A better trick would be to switch all the wallets. They would be back at work before the found out in many cases.
I’m one of these bastards. I rarely lock my locker. If someone wants to steal a shitty $5 dollar Kmart backback that’s never been washed with some dirty jeans in it, go ahead. I always keep my wallet on me anyways. I used to be one of the dickheads that would just keep his lock on an empty locker thinking it was “mine”. I’m getting better though.
I hate that. I used to have a favorite locker (I got to the gym at 5:30ish in the morning, so it wasn’t that crowded) that I used all the time. Nothing special, it was one of the full length ones in the middle.
I took a vacation for two weeks and when I come back, someone is using “my” locker but with no lock! Now, I know it’s not truly mine, but I came to feel a bit proprietary about it.
I found another, equally good locker, but it still irks me when folks grab a locker with no lock.
We’re a bit kinder at my gym…you’ll get a note pinned to the locker that you have 5-7 days to remove the lock, they’re for daily use only, blah blah blah.
The only problem then is that they come in while you are doing it 
My gym has locks on the doors (like the ones you used to need quarters for) except your Gym ID has a notch in it, so you put it in the slot inside the locker and Voila - door locked.
The other problem being that the gym likely has no policy that requires that you keep a lock on your locker, but probably does have one against taking other people’s stuff.
Someone did that to me in high school, but with my bikcycle. I always locked it in the same place, but I had a cheap bike lock.
One day, someone moved my bike to the other end of the rack and locked it up again. I never found out who it was, but it sure was a wake-up call. I got a real lock and never lost it to theft.
Although the whole “Is this locker empty? No. Is this one? No.” thing is annoying, even more irritating is the fact that you can’t tell which unlocked lockers are being used when you choose your own, without opening them all. It’s polite to give the others in the locker room some space, so I try to take a locker that is not right on top of someone else’s.
But the lockless mouthbreathers always end up in the locker next to the one I’ve taken – and try to give me dirty looks as they squeeze in between me and the next guy. It’s especially annoying when they’re smokers or use one of those damn aerosol deodorants; not only are they on top of me, but I have to smell them, too.
It’s to the point where, when I hear “Oooh, sorry; I’m right next to you,” behind me, I reply: “Are you sure? There’s no lock on this locker; maybe you forgot which locker you used.” Leading to hemming and hawing before they admit that they don’t use a lock.
… at which point I look shocked, and tell lies about the pranks that’ve been pulled on people’s underwear recently. At least two of the schmucks I’ve done my routine on have started locking up their stuff.