Admission tickets, parking, merch and VIP, on one store page

Most shows collect gate money in a coffee can and sell shirts off a folding table, and it mostly works until it doesn’t: nobody knows how many came in, the treasurer counts the can at dusk, and the size-large box was empty by ten. The Store puts admission, parking, merchandise and VIP packages on one page with one checkout, gives every ticket a QR that scans once, and hands the volunteer at the gate a phone instead of a clicker.

Setting up a ticket

Store, then the New ticket or product form. Pick Admission tickets, name it, and add one row per option: Adult at $10, Child at $0, Family at $30 that admits 4. Each row can carry an early price (what it costs until a date you set, after which the regular price applies everywhere, including the gate) and a stock count (how many exist; the page says sold out at zero). A total stock across every option and a per-order limit sit below the rows, both optional.

A price of 0 is a free tier. Someone who only takes free tickets never sees a checkout: they type a name and an email, press Get my tickets, and their passes are on the next page. That is also the cheapest RSVP headcount you will ever run.

Parking, merch and VIP

The same form, a different kind. Rows are sizes for a shirt, rows for a parking lot, tiers for a VIP package, each with its own price and stock. A product can be marked Includes admission: a VIP package or a drive-in parking pass that gets its holder through the gate issues a pass with a QR, exactly like a ticket, so the person at the gate needs no special case. Add a picture if you have one; it shows on the store page and the receipt.

Everything is handed over on show day, merchandise included. There’s no shipping and no address to collect: the buyer pays ahead or at the table, and picks it up at the show.

The store page

Every show has one at /store/ on your own address, with tickets first, then products, then any raffle that’s on sale, and one quantity box per option. A buyer fills in what they want, gives an email, and pays once on your provider’s checkout for the lot. The show’s homepage shows a Tickets and store button beside Register while anything is on sale online, and the registration confirmation carries the link for the friends an entrant brings.

Online sales need a payment account connected (Settings, then Payments); as with everything on Car Show HQ, the money goes to your own Square, Stripe or PayPal and never through us. The store page’s QR downloads as a PNG from the Products tab for the flyer and the sign at the entrance.

What the buyer gets

A receipt by email with the pass codes and one QR image attached per pass, and an order page that stays put with every QR on it. A family of four gets four QRs; each scans once. Anything to pick up is listed under the passes with the order number to give at the desk.

The gate

Store, then Scan tickets, on any phone that’s signed in. Tap Scan a ticket and the phone’s camera reads the QR; the page says Admitted in green the first time and Already used in red the second, with the time and who scanned it. The buyer’s name and the order number are on the verdict, and Undo is there for the scan that shouldn’t have counted.

The volunteer at the gate doesn’t need an account. The crew link from Show day tools, the same one the registration gate uses, puts a Scan tickets button on the crew home; one scan of the crew QR and they’re admitting. Undo stays with a signed-in staff phone.

The phone’s own camera app works too. A pass QR is a link to this page with the pass ready, so a volunteer who never opens the app can point the camera, tap the notification, and press Admit. And when the sun is on the screen, the eight-character code types in a few seconds; it uses the same alphabet as the gate codes, with no zeros or ones to mistake.

Only a paid, unrefunded pass admits. A refund at your provider voids the passes here on its own when the webhook lands.

The pickup desk

Store, then Pickup, for the volunteer with the boxes of shirts. Search by name, email, phone, order number or a pass code; each line of the order has a Handed over button, with a count box when the line is more than one, and Put back for the mistake. The list shows only what’s still waiting unless you ask for everything. The buyer’s page shows the same state, so “did I already get my shirt” answers itself.

Selling at the show

The Sell screen carries everything that sells at the table, tickets and products and raffle bundles, in one cart with plus and minus buttons per option and the stock left beside each. Paid cash records the sale and shows the gate codes on the screen; a paired Square Terminal takes the card. A staff sale with an email sends the same receipt with the same QRs, so a walk-up who pays cash at the gate still gets a scannable pass, or you wave them through and write nothing down. Your call.

Comp it, under the payment buttons, is for the sponsor’s four tickets and the volunteer’s shirt. Say who it’s for, press Comp, and the passes issue as usual; the order reads Comp with that name on it and adds nothing to the money.

Orders and the money

Store, then Orders, is every sale for the show across tickets, products and raffles, searchable, with a CSV. A By item table at the top adds it up the way a treasurer asks: each product and option, how many sold, how many of those were comps, and what it took in. Refunds for card sales happen in your provider’s dashboard. A full refund voids the passes here on its own; a partial one (one ticket out of four) is noted on the order with the amount, and you void the pass it covered with one tap, since only you know which one. Cash refunds are between you and the cash box, and Void takes the order out.

Stock is checked again at the moment an order is placed, so the last VIP table can’t sell twice to two people who pressed Buy in the same second; the slower one is told it’s gone. A checkout that was started and abandoned holds its items for thirty minutes, then they go back on sale. A payment that lands after that still settles the order; it only stopped holding the stock.

What it does not do

• It does not ship anything. Merchandise, parking and VIP extras change hands at the show, on the day.
• It does not calculate sales tax. The store charges the price you set, the money lands in your own Square, Stripe or PayPal account, and tax settings, reports and remittance stay with your processor and your books. If your state taxes T-shirts, set the price with that in mind.
• It does not sell add-ons inside the car registration form. Entrants see the store link on their confirmation instead; add-ons in the registration flow are on the list for after the store has run at a few shows.
• It does not put a name on each ticket. One buyer, one order, as many passes as they bought.
• It does not need a scanner, a printer or a badge. A phone and a signed-in staff account do it.

Next, print the store QR on the sign at the entrance, and put the volunteer with the best eyes on the Scan page.

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