Yeah, this whole GC thing is weird. It makes people come to the store twice, so maybe they will spend money twice? That makes good business sense, in most cases. But requiring a $50 fee basically for one visit that includes a Pete appearance is a bit much.

Or maybe they think it is going to be a madhouse and don't want to deal with actually selling merch for those 2 hours?

Who knows. It is pretty fucked up no matter what the reason.