Looking Ahead to BreyerFest 2022: How I Would Change the SR Pickup Experience

Hello everyone! Here is another post I started a while ago and I'm just now finishing, hooray!

Breyer has recently revealed the pricing structure for 2022's 'Fest, available to peruse here. We knew that a hybrid model was planned going forward, but we did not know what the implementation would look like. Now, we are starting to have an idea of what will be available online vs. what will be available for park-goers. 

One of the KHP buildings, photo taken in 2004 on my family's first trip to BreyerFest

I'd like to talk about some thoughts I've had about ways in which the Park user experience could potentially be improved (it's not the be-all-end-all, if it was, Breyer would have thought of it already), but perhaps something like this would be more flexible and forgiving to folks who don't do well with the heat & lines. 

I wouldn't mind if they changed the experience to be a sort of will-call style...you don't know what you've been drawn for until you get to the Park (it shows up on your online account) OR it is revealed Thursday night, whenever Breyer wants to drop it in advance, but you can redeem your pickups at any point during the weekend up until a certain time (and they'd have to have multiple lines). 

Anything not claimed by X time on Sunday goes into the leftovers line for those who elect to participate in that. I think that would give people plenty of time to arrange trades and still get most or all of what they want. There would definitely still be a swap area outside of will call especially with surprises and variations.

This would be similar to how people currently pick up their Celebration models. Like everything else, it's not a perfect solution- there will still be times where the wait is longer. I do think people would be more likely to self-select and opt to go during times where it is quieter.

If Breyer is able to have more than one line going at one time, within the same area (probably a tent like they've used in the past, traffic can be directed more efficiently. Perhaps, if folks are asked to pay online once they've been given their selections, but before they redeem the orders, that could also expediate things and you wouldn't have the problems of all the cash registers going offline being a hold-up for everyone. Again, whatever is not paid for & claimed by X time on Sunday goes into the usual Leftovers line. I would offer though that maybe 1-2 cash registers be necessary for anyone who has trouble paying online and for the Leftovers sale, in which items cannot be claimed ahead of time. 

I'm imagining maybe 4-7 different lines of pickers to help with the flow of traffic. These volunteers, instead of being assigned to a specific model, will read or scan the order(s) and pick the models for the attendee (though I could see them limiting people to only redeeming a certain amount of models per trip to make things less chaotic for the volunteers and ensuring that they only need to re-stock their piles a few times during the day). If the models are pre-paid you grab and go, if not you will proceed to the registers. There would be one or more people at the entrance to check that each person does have models to redeem. This would be where anyone having difficulties paying would note this. Perhaps, one or two specific lanes could be dedicated to those who still need to pay. 

Anyone with more than one pair of models would be offered a Breyer shopping bag (perhaps the limit of how many per trip would depend on how many models can fit comfortably in two shopping bags? Maybe 4 orders/8 models? That's still more than you can get in one trip now! Those shopping bags are pretty large.)

Like the current setup of the SR experience, you would still need to check large bags or have someone hold them for you while you go through. To help with any security concerns there could be a final person at the end of each lane double checking orders to ensure no one was given (or took) anything that wasn't on their order. Limiting the amount you can pick up per trip would also help streamline this process so you don't get Suzie Creamcheese picking up all 12 of her and her friends' orders and having the security person double check 24 models.

PROS:

1. While you won't get that ability to change your mind last minute when you're in line as things sell out, you WILL know going into the weekend exactly what you are able to buy and use that to arrange trades/sales with fellow hobbyists. 

2. A more streamlined line experience could lead to less time standing in line, which is helpful for those who cannot stand/walk for long periods of time in the heat. 

3. The ability to jump into the line when it is convenient rather than having exact times might lead people to plan more based on the other things they want to participate in during the event. 

4. If you do enjoy standing in lines, there would still be some lines, especially at busy times. That part of the event is not going away, but changing to a system like this would make things more flexible for folks who cannot or do not want to deal with it as much. 

5. Anyone who does pickups will know right away how many of each model they have for their friends/customers and it may be easier to try and swap things around to meet as many wish lists as possible during the weekend. 

CONS:

1. This system would not have ability to remove all lines. That will always be a part of the BreyerFest experience in some fashion. (Sorry to those who hate lines, there's just no way I can think of to entirely remove them).

2. I expect there would still be an initial rush on Friday morning. Folks will want to know what the Surprise is, and if there are any fun variations on the others- HOWEVER, this has the caveat that not everyone will want to be a "guinea pig" and commit to buying before they know what's what, so perhaps that could delay the full onslaught of the morning rush slightly until news of the Surprise/any variations is passed around. 

3. The other reason for Friday being busy may be that folks want to get the models in their hands to be able to trade Friday night or Saturday before a lot of folks start heading home on Sunday. 

4. For those who buy many tickets, either as a pickup person or otherwise, I doubt they'd allow people to pick up all their models at once. It could mess with the supply flow, and there's only so many models a single person can carry! 

5. This may not be the best system for those who have anxiety and may worry about if there will be any slow times that work with their schedule to go through the line and not be late for other things. Some folks prefer that predictability of an assigned time and that's very understandable. 

I apologize if this isn't too readable- I did it in pencil so I could erase any mistakes. Basically, this is a setup and scenario in which the SR tent has 4 Express lanes (pre-paid/will call) and two regular lanes (non pre-paid).

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea but thanks for reading through my idea-dump. It's fun to imagine what might be possible for BreyerFest!