WANT TO FEEL SPECIAL? STORES AND RESTAURANTS WITH PAID MEMBERSHIPS ARE BETTING ON IT

How much does it cost to feel special?

At Chuck E- Cheese, the family entertainment and pizza chain, the price is $7.99, $11.99 or $29.99 per month. At the other end of the spectrum, the founder of a shopping app called Long Story Short wants to charge members $1,000 monthly for anonymous access to such hard-to-get goods as a rare Keith Haring artwork.

Paid loyalty programs are all the rage in the restaurant and retail worlds. Looking for reliable sales in an unpredictable spending environment, more companies have extended their points-based loyalty tiers to making their most dependable customers feel valued for an up-front fee.

Consumers bombarded with membership offers are promised perks such as free deliveries and first dibs on new launches, but also in some cases the right to jump ahead of non-members on reservation lists and in customer service queues.

It’s a method rooted in both the business case for treating big spenders well - it’s cheaper for businesses to keep an existing customer than to find a new one — and in the fundamental human need for belonging, said Valerie Folkes, a consumer psychologist and marketing professor emerita at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

“If they’re seated earlier than other people or there’s a special line for them at the registers, then they feel they’re special,” Folkes said. “It makes them feel that there’s a stronger link or a bond between themselves and the company.”

In retailing, Target Corp. is taking on the Amazon Prime juggernaut with a paid loyalty program that will cost $49 a year between April 7 and May 18, and $99 annually thereafter. Members of Target Circle 360 can expect free two-day shipping and free deliveries of orders over $35 in as little as an hour, the company announced last week.