From the Left Pocket to the Right

A Viewpoint on How Members Decide What Matters

(A follow-up to “Where Member Value Is Really Created”)

In my previous article, I explored why member value so often scores lower than satisfaction in club surveys, and why value is less about what members pay and more about how easily they can use their club and how they feel when they do. This piece is a continuation of that thinking, and a way to look at value through a different, more human lens.

Most of us carry two kinds of money.

There is the money we think carefully about, the kind that invites comparison, justification, and internal debate. This is the money that makes us pause. We ask whether something is worth it. We do the math. We weigh alternatives. This is left-hand pocket money.

Then there is the other kind. The money we spend with far less thought, or no thought at all. It is reserved for things that, for reasons that are deeply personal, simply do not matter in the same way. This is right-hand pocket money.

The difference between the two has very little to do with income or intelligence. It has everything to do with feeling.

Take Starbucks as a simple example. For some people, spending six or seven dollars on a cup of coffee feels absurd. They cannot get past the price. They calculate what it costs per month, compare it to what they could make at home, and wonder why anyone would do it. That is left-hand pocket thinking.

For others, it never even registers. It is the routine, the familiarity, the barista who knows their name, the small sense of comfort or predictability in the middle of a busy day. The cost is not ignored, but it is irrelevant. It lives firmly in the right-hand pocket.

On a larger scale, consider Las Vegas. Most of us know someone who loves it. They talk about the upgrades, the comps, the experiences. What they rarely talk about is how much it actually costs them. Not because they are hiding it, but because it does not feel like a transaction in the same way. Vegas understands something fundamental about human behavior. Feelings matter more than math. And, as a side note, Vegas always wins.

Private clubs and hospitality businesses are no different.

At their best, they succeed by moving spending from the left-hand pocket to the right-hand pocket. When members are mentally calculating what something costs, when they are comparing value in a transactional way, something has already gone wrong. The experience has failed to earn emotional permission.

This is where the conversation about value often gets confused. Leaders see members questioning prices and assume the problem is cost. In reality, the problem is friction. Something about the experience has caused members to reengage their left-hand pocket.

In clubs, this shows up in subtle ways. Members begin to talk about the price of a meal instead of the enjoyment of the evening. They hesitate before ordering another round. They question fees that once felt inconsequential. These are not complaints about money. They are signals about feeling.

The goal is not to make members careless with their spending. It is to make the spending feel secondary to the experience. When members feel welcomed, recognized, and at ease, when the club fits naturally into their lives, money moves quietly to the right-hand pocket.

This is why access, consistency, and warmth matter so much. If using the club feels difficult, if policies create friction, if service feels transactional, members are pulled back into left-hand pocket thinking. They start evaluating instead of enjoying.

Clubs that understand this do not obsess over pricing alone. They focus on the moments that make cost irrelevant. They invest in recognition. They design experiences that feel personal rather than programmed. They remove small irritants that cause members to pause and calculate.

In hospitality, winning is not about charging less. It is about making the question of cost fade into the background.

When members stop thinking about what something costs and start thinking about how it makes them feel, the club has done its job.

And when that happens, value takes care of itself.