(Courtesy of New York Post)

Fledgling chains of high-tech gyms and recreational spots that don’t have on-site employees are cropping up nationwide – and some are grappling with shoplifting and randy customers.

Their novel business model is employee-lite during a stubborn labor shortage — and they seized on a soft commercial real estate market during the height of the pandemic to secure locations at bargain prices.

One’s a ping pong parlor where customers book a reservation with their phones and let themselves in — all unattended; another’s a pool hall that works the same way.

But even landlords have questions about renting to businesses that have no one manning the store, conceded David Silberman, co-founder of PingPod, which operates three locations where people can reserve a ping pod table any time of day or night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on the Lower East Side and near Times Square.

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