WEBVTT - Selects: Live From San Francisco: How Malls Work 0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:05.040 Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. This is your co host of 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.960 Stuff you Should Know here, Chuck Bryant, and I'm gonna 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.600 recommend that you listen to this week's select episode live 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:16.440 from San Francisco, colin How Malls Work. This was in 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:21.159 February of twenty seventeen, February nineteenth specifically, and this was 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.640 our Sketch Fest performance for that year. And I'm not 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.080 sure how many times we did this topic live that year, 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:32.199 but I just wanted to kind of put this in 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.280 as a Saturday Select as a way of saying, hey, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.680 here's what our live shows sound like, and they are 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:39.959 a lot of fun, and there's even a lot more 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.159 fun that gets edited out of these. So we're going 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:44.639 on the road this year, as you know, and we're 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.559 gonna hit probably six or seven more cities before it's 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.760 all said and done in twenty twenty three. So I 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:52.360 wanted to throw a live show in there to show 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.960 you what was all about. So please to enjoy this 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:04.800 week's Select live episode How Malls Work. Welcome to Stuff 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:14.200 you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.680 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Brian, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.080 We're in beautiful San Francisco, California, at the Castro Theater. 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:48.200 You should thank you. It's wonderful, our biggest, our biggest 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:52.160 show to date. Seriously today, yep, on a Sunday afternoon. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:02:00.160 Ye who knew San Francisco sketch Fest. All right, So 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.840 we're talking today everybody about a little something called the 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:12.880 Mall And I'm not joking. Yeah, that's what I have. 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.200 So that's good. So we've been wanting to do something 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.680 on the mall for years now and years and years, 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:21.280 and we thought, well, what does San Francisco if not 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:26.280 the Mall? Right, they're gonna love this one, and I 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:31.000 guess we were wrong. Now, you guys will love it. 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.680 I promise it's just like um, like the Grass episode. 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.480 You may have been like, I'm not listening to that, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:38.679 and then you finally ran out of episodes. Listen to 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.639 the Grass episode and you're like, that wasn't as bad 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.760 as I thought it was gonna be. This will be 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:49.120 similar to that experience, okay, except the Grass episode was free. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.160 I promise we will give it our all. I don't 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:57.400 know why we're selling it like this is going downhill 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:02.760 so fast. That's great, okay, so uphill, shall we get 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:14.640 in the way back machine? Ooh, which is imaginary? Oo. 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:18.920 So when you think of shopping mall, you think of 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.120 the mall. Right, everybody knows what the mall is. If 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.480 there's somebody who doesn't know what the mall is, raise 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.840 your hand, and whoever sitting next to that person, punch 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:27.680 him in the arm really hard, be like, come on, 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.679 you know what the mall is. I assume San Francisco 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.440 has malls somewhere. Oh yeah, they've got mall. I've never 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:36.400 seen one. They're probably out a bit. It's not like 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:38.960 a mall in the middle of the mission, or is there. 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.480 I don't think so. Right, Okay, there's a few. Oh 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.200 you did, I did a little They pop up here 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:48.120 or there. You guys will know, because I'll be like, 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.600 so if we're we're all in the way back machine, 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.720 and we're going all the way back back back back 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.680 to ancient Rome where the actual the first what you 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.680 could consider a shopping center appears, and it was called 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.480 Trajan's Market. And Trajan's Market was built in something like 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:11.240 one oh seven. I think, yeah, that's early. I think 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:18.880 its anchor store was Trajan's Horse that was okay. Sorry. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:20.919 If I had a store back there, that would have 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.960 totally called it Trajan's Horse. Yeah yeah, And it's known 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.080 as the world's oldest shopping center for good reason. Again. 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.720 It was built in one oh seven and right now 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.640 it's in ruins. There's some guy who sells those little 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.560 balls with the raccoon tails on the end of them 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.120 on a tray, but he's technically outside of the mall 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.000 so it doesn't really count to the mall's closed. It 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:49.640 has been for several millennia now, but the oldest continually 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.560 operated what you would might call an outdoor market or mall, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:59.560 is the Grand Bazaar with an A three. A's actually two, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.880 now there's three. You've been drinking, Yeah, just not together 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:05.760 be a z a r oh oh gotcha, yeah, I 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.000 guess if I'm not gonna checking his math checks out, 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.440 that's a joke from Fletch. If I'm not mistaken, I 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.080 don't like all right, deep cut the Grand Bizarre Istanbul. 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.680 Between fourteen fifty five and fourteen sixty one is when 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.560 that was built, and it is still an operation today. 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.040 About five thousand coboard shops still gets about a quarter 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.120 million visitors a day. So it's still rocking day. Yeah, yeah, 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:34.400 a lot of folks. So you've got what medieval market 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.080 towns kind of started to come later, seaports, all these things, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.200 these commercial districts where people went to shop. They all 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.560 had to kind of be centered in an area together 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.040 because people rode horses, or they walked, or they were 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:52.360 chased by their people, whatever. But you had to go 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:54.680 and get all your shopping done at one place. Right, 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:59.040 And that's just kind of a very ancient idea, and right, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.960 it's wonderful. By the turn of the twentieth century here 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.320 in the US, we had something we still do. It 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.480 hasn't gone away. Pre mall. We had the department store. 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.560 And I think I even mentioned this on another show. 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:12.560 It didn't dawn on me, you know how, like the 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.279 simplest words dawn on you late in life, like what 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.440 it really means. I just always said, Hey, a department store. 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.200 It really just occurred to me a couple of years ago, like, oh, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.480 it's a store full of many departments. Right, never really 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.880 thought about it. Do you ever have those? It's kind 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:33.000 of nice department stores thirteen stories high in Chicago, the 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.600 Marshall end Field Company and Marshall Field, Marshall Field and Company. 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.480 And then in Detroit there was one called J. L. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:44.800 Hudson's that was twenty five floors of department store, twenty 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.479 five floors of retail space. And this thing took up 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.039 like a whole block. Yeah, and there's nineteen eleven, so 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.960 there's a lot of stuff. It is a lot of stuff. 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:56.960 In eighteen twenty eight, though, if you back up a 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.159 little bit, the first sort of enclosed shopping center that 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.640 you might kind of consider a mall mall even though 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.280 we really don't, as you'll see, because it didn't have 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:10.560 an arcade, even though it is it's called the Westminster Arcade, 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.480 fun ironically didn't have an arcade. And Providence, Rhode Island. 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:18.400 Has anyone ever been to this place? Yeah? I've been? 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:24.760 Have you really? Yes? I didn't know that. Yeah, you 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.440 didn't type in here I've been there. Yeah, all right, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:30.240 I didn't know I needed to say that. Well, it 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.760 was assumed. It's a pretty cool place. So if you 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:35.840 look it up online, it doesn't look like the mall 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.520 that you would consider a mall. Looks like sort of 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.920 like a Greek revival building and it's like a big 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:43.600 ceiling Yeah, it's really nice. It's got three it sort 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.720 of looks like a train station. It's kind of three floors. 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.000 And recently they were going to demolish it, but someone 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.920 swooped in and built micro apartments. Now you can live 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.200 in there and they're really kind of cool. And I 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:58.720 was gonna explain again what a micro apartment was, but 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.720 I forgot where I am. Yeah, so you all know, 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:08.040 isn't that like a dresser drawer? Yes, and you walk 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:09.760 through the little thing that's like, oh my god, I 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:14.440 love living in thirty square feet and it's just some 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:23.520 guy standing in a broom cloth pretty much. Uh, screw 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.200 this up, herbs. Wait even well, even back further than this, 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:33.800 Russia should get its due right, even even before them, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.280 even before the the the Westminster Arcade, there is this 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.280 thing called the ghost veted Voor. And I looked at 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.200 the pronunciation, but I should qualify that I looked up 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.600 the pronunciation on the same site that I looked up 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:53.880 the pronunciation on Disha chain, which I called dixiea chain 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:59.160 throughout the entire Underground City episode. So so take that 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.280 for what it. I was about to say, all our 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.480 Asian friends, let us know that was wrong, but really 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.680 everyone of every race let us know that was wrong, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.600 Thank you dummies. After World War two, things really kind 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.600 of evolved with the shopping center though. That's when things 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:20.040 kind of started going in In nineteen fifty Seattle's Northgate 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.880 Center was But I feel like we say several times, 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:25.560 the first thing we think of a zamal. I guess 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.160 it was just part of the evolution, right. Southdale was 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.280 the first real mall. All right, so Southdale we're gonna 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:38.400 pick up with Southdale. Southdale was in Edina, Minnesota. A dinah, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:44.760 thank you live corrections very nice? Where were you? And 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:55.120 I was saying Dixie a chance over and over and over. Deal. Well, 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.920 previous to that, boy, we're jumping all around this designer 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.880 and really the man who were gonna either thank for 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.160 the mall or blame for the mall, depending on how 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.920 you feel about malls is a gentleman named Victor Gruen. 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:12.280 Anyone want to correct me on that. He's an Austrian 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:19.320 architect and he designed Northland Center in Michigan. Is that correct? Yes? 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.440 And it was. Northland Center is in Southland, Michigan. Now 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:28.720 it's so confusing, it's terrible. It had a what was known, 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.920 and I said anchor store earlier, and this is what 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.240 malls have. They have these anchor stores which are still 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.839 to this day, mainly department stores. And that anchor store 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.920 was Hudson's Department Store, had about one hundred and ten 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.240 other stores. But it still wasn't a real mall mall 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:46.679 because it wasn't as you'll see, introverted, correct, and it 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.560 wasn't enclosed. It was open air. Yeah, like you know 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.440 when you go to those outlet malls today where it's 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.280 just all you're walking around outside like an idiot. You know, 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.320 this is kind of like what Southfield was like get 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.679 and that's what all shopping malls were like up to 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.120 that point. They weren't enclosed. It was nineteen fifty six 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.520 in a Dina, Minnesota when the first enclosed mall like 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:12.880 we think of it today came about. Yeah, and I 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.560 actually looked up the previous Northland. They did close that 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:17.920 in in the seventies and it finally shuddered for good 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.360 a couple of years ago, and I found this website 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.480 that said twelve weirdest things left behind in the Northland 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.200 Center And it wasn't that exciting, but there was one 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.400 the group to tension room and I started thinking, holy crap, 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.800 malls had jails. Yeah, And I looked it up and 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.920 someone said I went to Yahoo. Answers like, where else 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.840 do you go to get the real truth? And the 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.720 number one voted up answer said, it's not a real cell. 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.920 It's just a small dark room with no windows, in 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.080 a chair and a camera in it that you're not 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.480 allowed to leave. It's like and this one I took 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:01.000 micro department basically, this one had changed on the benches 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.040 and I was like, nah, that's a jail cell. Yeah. 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.760 So I saw that too. There was like a target 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.719 cart under a spotlight. I think. I thought that was beautiful. Yeah, 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:15.800 it was very arty, haunting. I'm with you, lady, all right. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:21.040 So jumping back forward again to Minneapolis. Outside of Minneapolis 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:28.079 is it Adena, Diana, Thank you, nineteen fifty six Southdale, 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.959 twenty million bucks. The anchor store was Donaldson's and Dayton's, right, 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:39.240 who can forget Donaldson's? I did, okay, And Dayton's actually 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.840 commissioned this mall to be built because they were building 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.079 a new outpost in the suburbs of Minneapolis. And it 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.760 wasn't just by coincidence that a Diana was ten miles 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.960 away from downtown Minneapolis, because again this is nineteen fifty six, 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.480 so it's during the Cold War, and that's actually right 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.640 outside the eight mile blast radius of atomic bomb were 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.199 it to be dropped on Minneapolis. Because of course that's 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.280 what the Ruskies were thinking, We're going from Minneapolis first. 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.560 But they've built a mall outside of the blast radius, 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:16.160 so I guess we'll just give up. So the original 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.080 idea for them all from Victor Gruin, was too he 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:20.520 wanted to kind of, you know how they have these 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.320 mixed use centers. Now, he had this idea way back 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.240 then and he wanted people to live there and kind 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.680 of congregate there. And we'll get a little more to 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:30.880 this later, but it sort of ended up just being 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.160 a shopping mall, to his disappointment. But he modeled it 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.680 on Northgate in Seattle, and sort of the big idea 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.720 was that you go to these department stores because that's 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.640 where people were used to. But how do you get 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.560 them to these other stores? Was the big question, right, 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.360 how do you get them chopping? Oh at the mall? Yeah, 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.040 like they're there because people went to department store. So 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.479 if you put a department store out in the suburbs. 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:55.760 They'll go to the department store. They're like, oh, I 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.200 thought I was supposed to take a left, Now I'm 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.920 taking a right. I'm at the department store. Who cares. Right. 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.440 The problem is is if you put one hundred and 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.880 ten other stores coming off of that department store, they 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.800 just go to the department store and leave. Not good, 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.760 right if you're one of these other stores. So what 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.800 Northgate figured out, and what is mind numbingly obvious but 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.160 really works, is you just take this department store, put 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.360 another department store, and then put the shops in between them, 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.480 and then the people take a rite. But they should 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.040 take a left. But they're fine, they're going to the 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.080 department store. Oh, if there's another department store, well, I'll 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.880 just walk past this. Maybe i'll buy that, I'll buy 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:36.840 a little bit of this. Sure, i'll take a feather 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.080 boa And then they walk into the other department store 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:45.720 and consumerism is saved. That's right. It was revolutionary at 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:48.600 the time. So he built he was commissioned at least 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.120 by Dayton's department store to build this kind of advanced 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:54.040 shopping center. They didn't call them malls at the time. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.560 They called them advanced shopping centers, and that's so high tech. 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:02.160 He actually added space for a competitor at the other end, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.280 because you had this idea like how to keep people there, 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.440 And I don't know how he talked Dayton's into it. 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.920 Were like wait, wait, yeah, like hold on a second, no, no, 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:13.120 we're paying you to do this, and you want to 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:15.720 put a competitor's store in there. He's like, yeah, it'll work, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.400 trust me. So a few minutes ago I mentioned that 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:23.200 it was introverted. My uncle's still texting me, still looking 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:31.080 for parking, just circling the castro at this point. So 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:35.440 we mentioned introverted and extroverted. Malls previous to this were outdoor, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.040 and like we said, they were extroverted. So in other words, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.080 you walk the perimeter and the stores faced the outside 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.920 and they had doors on them that you would walk 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.320 into if you wanted to shop. So he had this 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.720 idea like, wait, let's reverse all that. Let's turn it 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.560 all inside. Where you walk into this huge building. You 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:57.600 got these two stores on both ends, and there are 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:00.280 no doors. They might have a gate they lower it night, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.680 but it's just open. Like people will just walk through 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.880 this little concourse and all the stores are wide open 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.040 for everyone. It's air conditioned, it's heated, not at the 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.840 same time, at appropriate times, especially in a place like Minneapolis, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.440 it's probably a nice place to go in the wintertime. Yeah, 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.280 it was a big deal. He introverted them is what 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.160 they're called, right where they look in on themselves, and 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.320 they're enclosed as well. So for the first time ever, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.520 you could just walk around this beautiful place with trees, 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.320 and he put like a twenty foot bird cage, and 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.320 there were goldfish ponds and all of this stuff. And 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:36.400 it'd be the middle of winter and you could walk 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:38.760 around in short sleeves and be like, I live in 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:46.320 a Dinah, not a dina. The other thing he kind 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.520 of nailed right out of the gate was previous to this, 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:53.080 shopping malls were usually or shopping centers are on one floor, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.320 and they were spread out over this big, broad area 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.160 and you had to enter from the outside and walk 0:16:58.160 --> 0:16:59.840 around the cold and it was all this one big, 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.920 single level. And he said, how about this, how about 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.240 we stack it, because this is a genius. Everyone put 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:07.720 a store on one end, put a store on the 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:09.720 other end. You stack him on top of each other. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.240 You put escalators on both sides. You park in this side, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:15.680 you go into your department store, you walk down on 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.680 the first level to get to the other department store, 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:20.920 you get down the escalator, and then you walk back 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:22.959 on the other level to get to your car. And 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.840 you've seen every store, right, and it was genius. It 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.359 was retail genius, exactly pretty amazing. And again we take 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:32.840 this for granted now, but at the time everyone's like, hum, 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:35.040 I never thought of that. Well, the point that we 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.640 take this for granted, like all of this sounds brain dead. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.080 All of this came essentially from this one guy, this 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.840 dude named Victor Grewitt, who was kind of like a 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.520 high artsy Fartsia society type from Austria who fled the 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.240 Nazis in nineteen thirty eight and was a self taught 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.679 architect right who just started designing them all and he 0:17:55.359 --> 0:18:00.280 invented the mall, and he got basically everything right out 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.080 of the gate, actually amazing. The Economist has a really 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.879 great quote about him. They say that he it was 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:12.600 as if Orville and Wilbur Wright invented not just manned 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:18.920 flight but also tray tables and duty free service. Not bad. 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:21.280 The other thing he got right right out of the 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.360 gate was these low balconies. You know, if you'd ever 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.359 go into them all. You know, if you're on that 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.200 top floor, you can look down and say, I gotta 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:31.960 go into Chess King and get some parachute pants. Or 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:33.720 if you're down on that bottom floor, you can look 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.760 up and you can see I gotta go to Marry 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.800 Go Around and check out the ladies. Merry Go Around. Man. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.040 That takes me back right. There will be a bit 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:45.920 of nostalgia peppered in here and there. Actually, I don't 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.280 even think I put Marry Go Around. I put Camelot 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.000 music is what I have in my Camelot music everyone. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:56.520 And the joke I have was the Duran Duran kissingle. 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.480 Oh my god, the kissingle. It's like I just ate 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.160 a whole bunch of member berries or something of what 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:11.160 member berries. I don't know. It's a whole South Park thing. Okay, Yeah, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:18.080 Well three other people love that joke. So more than 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.800 seventy five thousand people. Seventy five thousand people turned out 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.640 on the grand opening day of Southdale Mall, and not 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:30.719 just local press, Life Magazine, Time Magazine, New York Times, 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.800 Business Week, Newsweek, They all came out and said things 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.440 like it's the splashiest center in the US, as a 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.400 goldfish pond, birds art, ten acres of stores, and all 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.879 under one Minnesota roof. It's a pleasure dome with parking, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.840 said Time magazine. But one guy got it right. One 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:52.119 guy said Southdale has become an integral part of the 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.879 American Way, and this is the first mall. And some 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.440 journalist points to it and says, this is how things 0:19:57.480 --> 0:19:59.800 are from now on. And this is the page that 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:01.760 is very hard for me to read because, as you 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.560 can see, I crumpled it up. Well, hold on, so 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.320 if we're going to release this, we should probably take 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.800 an ab break. Huh oh yeah, sure, Okay, you're ready, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:34.760 so we'll be right back, and we're back, all right. 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.840 I'm glad you thought of that. You guys get to 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:48.600 see how the sausage. So, as I was saying before 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:53.240 the break, I don't know if you can see it there, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.040 but this is crumpled up and very hard to read. 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.960 Because Josh sent a new version and I in the 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.359 hotel room, I said great, I printed it out, rumpled 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.040 up the wrong one and threw it away, and right 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:05.000 before I came I was searching through the trash and 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.960 here it is. It's not that bad actually, So we're 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.679 gonna entitle this next section the golden age of the 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.040 mall was you have to go like this one. It 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:17.600 wouldn't be a live show if we didn't have a 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.840 golden age of skyjacking, Golden age of pr golden age 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.159 of grave robbing, and now the golden age of them 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.119 all right. I was about to say golden age of 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.880 Rodney Dangerfield, but it was all golden age for that guy. 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:34.480 So the mall had its golden age. Between nineteen fifty 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:38.840 six and two thousand and five, fifteen hundred malls or 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:43.560 America were built, possibly two thousand, possibly three thousand, what 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.359 no one knows. They just stopped counting pretty much. They're like, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.080 forget it. We'll say seven thousand. Who cares. Million. A 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.639 million malls were built between that time in the US. 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.399 So there's a woman named Lisa Sharon who wrote a 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.600 book called America at the Mall Colon, because every book 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.960 has to have a colon if you're smart. The cultural 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:09.640 role of retail utopia. And she said, for the children seventies, eighties, 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:11.760 and nineties, the shopping mall was the place to be, 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.040 a space where we defined as our own. The mall 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:16.720 taught us how to fit in, how to be a consumer, 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:21.280 ultimately how to be an American. So who I mean, 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:22.840 we don't. You don't have to say how old you are. 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:25.520 But if you grew up in sort of the seventies 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.120 and the eighties, you know that the mall and into 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:30.760 the nineties. Of course, sure, the shopping mall was like 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.719 it's different than it is today. Like families used to 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:38.240 go to the mall for the day. You'd pick a Saturday, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:40.320 and you'd all pile in the car. You go to 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:42.720 the mall. You maybe go see a movie, the kids 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.119 would go to the arcade. Mom and dad would do 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:48.439 some shopping, and you would literally spend like six and 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.399 eight hours as a family outing at a mall. Right, 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.600 pretty unbelievable to think about that. Now you gather around 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.600 the laptop and go on the Amazon dot com. Yeah, 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.159 and I'll sit around and stare at your phones and 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:01.240 ignore you. Just say, yes, I would like to get 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:05.760 into fermenting pickles. I could use some fermentation weights. Thanks 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.840 for suggesting that Amazon. Interesting. You just changed my life. 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:14.040 But it was a big deal. You would spend family 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:16.720 Day at the mall. And in the eighties it was 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.240 just it was a part of America as anything else. 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:24.040 There were restaurants in the food court at the mall 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:26.840 that didn't exist outside of them all. They were born 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:33.080 in the mall, like Cinnabon. Someone gasped, that's it, we 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.000 can go home now, we're ever working toward as a 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.159 gasp from somebody. Orange Julius that was another one. And 0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:43.879 Express was only in malls for a long time. And 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:48.200 apparently Sbarrow. Everyone knows of Sbarrow, right. It was so 0:23:48.320 --> 0:23:51.440 tied to malls that when Sabarrow filed for bankruptcy in 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:56.760 twenty fourteen, they cited unprecedented decline in mall traffic in 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:59.880 their filing. There's like, no one likes the mall anymore. 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:07.520 We're borrow, We're dead. Yeah, word good Chick fil A too. 0:24:07.560 --> 0:24:10.080 You guys don't have Chick fil A here, do you? Oh? 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:14.320 You do you do well? Long before we knew the chicken, 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:18.600 it was back when everyone just thought it was delicious 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:25.040 and juicy and crispy, not filled with homophobia. Yeah, but no, no, 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:29.680