The Man Who Invented, Then Hated, Shopping Malls 

"And that was the final time anyone saw Tom Scott, he shall ever be remembered as the man who never found a parking space, The End"

Driving and youtubing, multitasking at its finest!

I thought it was pronounced like "maul"?

The correct pronunciation of "Mall" is "Hell".

This video contains the beginnings of a poem: "What he needed was a city centre for the suburban sprawl, And what he came up with was the idea of a shopping maul."

Tom Scott: "It's pronounced GIF because that's how it looks when written" Also Tom Scott: "Shopping Mall"

Some say "mall" Some say "mall" Deep down we all know it's a shopping centre.

By watching this is noticed something else. All Malls seem to be identical! At the first look at the interieur i thought that this is a shot from our mall around the corner here in cologne. Even the Shops and Brands are identical. Great Video as allways. Thank You!

I'm surprised how well you can narrate and drive at the same time. Trying to do that, I would have run over 4 pedestrians by that point, and I would have had memory blanks for the words I wanted to use at least 30 times.

Huh, interesting to know that urban myth was actually true. I remember when I was a kid some people saying "you know even the guy that invented malls hated them, right?"

Some say he's still looking for a parking space.

As a little kid, getting dragged to the mall was the bane of my very existence. Especially since the local mall didn't even have a toy store.

Tom Scott, second only to Scotty for surviving this long in a red shirt.

Is this your audition piece for Top Gear to replace Chris Evans, showing you can drive and talk?

I'm guessing half of the comments are about his pronunciation of the word mall. It is kinda weird indeed.

I've actually seen that idea that Gruen wished he could have seen during his lifetime in Finland ... there are shops, pubs, cafés, restaurants and - yes - blocks of flats in them. On a decent sunny day, they can be quite nice.

In Wrocław you can see two giant malls in a straight line, standing from one place, on a street leading to the old town market, which is naturally like a mall of its own. And now they're building another mall, a couple hundred feet from one of these two malls. You'd have to walk for a minute to get from one to the other. And I'm sure that you could see all three from one point, and also the fourth one, which is a tower and can be seen from far away.

Don't worry guys, I'm British and I don't pronounce mall like this :/ Brilliant and very informative video nonetheless Tom!

One of my favourite tv shows was called 'The Gruen Transfer' I am so glad you have enlightened many. Well done Tom

Now my question for Tom is, did that guy actually take that parking space or was that simply part of the script? Either way I enjoyed it.

How to tell Tom is proper tech savvy He knows how to mobile annotation

I recognise that shopping mall even though I've never been there, they all seem to look the same!

Actually, his utopian envisioning of the mall is very widespread in the Philippines. Lots of malls have built in condos, a lot have mall owned and separate clinics scattered around the mall. There are even some preschools inside.....

Man, for how little time it felt like you put into this video (I'm sure it's loads more than it looked like), that was a great video. It felt just as if i was just casually sitting next to you and you start talking about a subject that's infront of our noses. It was great.

As an urbanist I cannot say that Gruen's idea might have had a last laugh. We just came back to origins of the city - people understood that stretching living space to adopt it for cars makes everything less human and more inconvenient, as traffic jams are inevitable. You just cannot create enough space for cars, and even if you do - nobody would want to live there. So now everything steers back to how it was before cars - walkable streets, frontages, public transport, green spaces. Little or no cars. This kind of urban design encourages you not to use a car and creates opportunity for shops, gastronomy, small businesses to appear next to your home on the street instead of many miles from you in shopping mall. So, from an urban perspective, Gruen's former design is as bad, as shopping malls that evolved from that. Only difference is how you feel and use them when you are already there, but from the city's perspective these are exactly as bad. PS - what you have shown at the end of the video is not Gruen's design for a shopping mall, but something similar to what had existed in Europe's cities since XIX century - galleries or shopping houses. They were created in city centres to move shops from citie's markets, where they tradictionally were since the middle ages to buildings to free the space.

I love you Tom Scott!

Please keep this kind of series alive, Tom.

I absolutely love your style of videos. Keep it up

And apparently all people can do after watching the video is complain about how British people pronounce words differently.

I'm a Brit and I pronounce Mall the American way, on the basis it's an American word that Brits rarely use. And it makes more sense for it to rhyme with wall.

Great video Tom. Really look forward to these!

Oh my god, Tom actually driving a car! Anyway, there's a great 99% Invisible episode on this too, #163 "The Gruen Effect". Check it out!

Fun Fact: In the Philippines, it's a mix of American malls, the original vision, and what Filipinos want. The main point of malls here in the Philippines is leisure and luxury. A place where there's modern decor and airconditioning, a piece of developed America in a tropical developing country where we can get away from the sun and have some fun. Part of that is what most American malls have, places of buying and spending for clothes and whatnot. But there's also other stuff. Some malls have clinics. Almost all malls have restaurants, places for resting and enjoying either fast food or classy food or even local cuisine professionally made. There's playgrounds for little kids and even arcades that are open and bright like in Japan but also in English like in America. Some arcades are slightly darker to emulate the original arcades, but they're way cleaner and more modern. Some larger malls have open spaces in the center with trees and seats, usually surrounding or right next to the playground area. There's also some stalls near the front or side that are a modernized version of our _palengke_ (market) but with just the street food, fruits, and a few clothes, similar to the American thing. Also, if the fast food restaurants are on the outermost part of the mall on the bottom floor (like they usually are here), there's seats outside for people who want a more outdoorsie experience (although that's rare given our heat, usually it's for people who can't fit inside the actual place since there's too many people). There's also groceries for buying well, groceries, and department stores which are huge sections of a mall dedicated to selling generic/famous-but-low-to-mid-end-in-america brands of clothes, appliances, furniture, etc.

just wanna say i love your videos.Thanks for being awesome :D

I really love your videos, the production quality is really quite good :)

Some say Tom is still driving, looking for a spot, never to park...

How did you get the end screen icon/video thing?

This made me feel totally depressed up until 1:47. At 1:53 I managed to smile. Thanks for giving me hope for the future, Tom! I just wish we could show Victor Gruen!

Congrats on 500k! You've really worked for it an absolutely deserve it!

Lets hope Poodlecorp doesn't hack you Tom! Be careful out there!

Go to the trafford centre, its beautiful and massive.

Love your videos Tom, keep it up!

What a great little piece! It reflects on important issues with concepts that many people and places in NA are still eagerly buying into (pun not intended but I’ll take it).

Tom, I'm curious about your thoughts on the Brexit. Are you willing to share your opinions about it? Or perhaps do a video?

What's up with the pronunciation of mall?

Spectacular result Tom, hardly anyone is talking about the content and everyone is talking about your delivery. You might have to make two versions of every video from now on! :D

These videos are amazing. Honestly, they add to my fact library for random occasions :P!

Tom, what have you done!?Your steering wheel is on the wrong side!

Tom: Educational video about the origins of shopping centers Also Tom: mall

Gz on 500k!

Great video, as always

And some say, he's still out there driving to this day, searching for a parking space...

I didn't know that English people pronounce "mall" that way.

Exactly finding the parking space just as he finished talking about his topic to end the video --- MIND BLOWN

Great video, Paul! Short and to the point.

I despise shopping centres and will do everything in my power to avoid them. I particularly hate having to trawl through swathes of other hapless consumers to get to one specific shop to purchase one specific item, and have to remind myself that most of the people around me are probably in the same situation... but there are still those that consider a trip to a shopping centre as a day out in itself, and I couldn't personally think of anything more depressing!

You should do a video about the people (mostly associated with GM) who put all their effort to kill public trainsport, at least in the US. All in the name of the "glorious" automobile...

Very well done!

Tom, your video are all great. I love these pockets of information. Hopefully, we will continue to move towards Victor Gruen's plan now. Away from these sole consumerist goals and to create a space for the people.

Is Tom in his 20's or 40's?

I find it weird that you're pronouncing it "mal" instead of "mol"...

Very interesting and helpful, thank you for the video.

Tom, congratulations on the driving license! Also, great video!

It was Northgate Mall in Seattle.. still exists !!

TIL Brits and Americans pronounce "mall" differently.

Subscribed! Thanks for the info. I did not know this at all, but I see how it all is coming full-circle, thank God, into his true vision.

My brain is crunching itself into oblivion every time Tom says mall.

Anyone else annoyed by the way he pronounces ''Mall'' ?

But how soft is your mall?

God damn the way you speak is great, like perfect for a speech.

Great video! I highly recommend the 99% Invisible episode titled "The Gruen Effect," it pairs nicely.

i'm British and even I think the way you say Mall is so weird. Mall should be like Maul.

Was anyone else bothered by his twisted seat belt :(

Great video as mallways!

You're so close to 500k!

Come on Tom, you _know_ you're pronouncing it wrong

Wall, ball, small...mall? That is all.

that's a nice clip,well done.

Australia has a TV program devoted to the tricks of advertising called "The Gruen Transfer". Thanks, Tom, now I know who Gruen was!

The way you pronounce "mall" reminds me of the French "mal"; or "bad". Erm, yes. I am a Yankee.

Why is Tom pronouncing mall as "mal"? Is that a British thing?

Great video!

Legend has it that Tom still can't find a parking space to this day

99% of the comments: "Mall" pronunciation

Adam knows everything anyone?.....No okay let's just talk about the mall pronunciation

Love the subtitle variety!

I live like 10 minutes from Brent Cross, Tom literally was like a mile from my house. This just made my day😆😆😆😆

Oh my god. This whole time, I've been saying "mall" wrong. I thought in an English accent it's pronounced like "maul", as in Darth Maul? Feel stupid :P

not to be offensive but the pronunciation of "mall" is a bit weird, kinda like maowl, is that a Brittish thing or a Tom thing?

I saw this video in my feed, and thought "I saw that a couple of weeks ago, but I'll watch it again now". Then I watch it, and see that it was only uploaded yesterday... How is this possible?

I live about 10 minutes from Brent Cross and it, as well as being hell on the weekend, is hell on Christmas, Easter, and the holidays. Absolute mayhem!

Shopping centre* not mall. That's American..

By the sounds of Gruen's vision and its modern implementations, it _was_ accomplished in the UK as early as the 1940s - research a chap called *Donald Gibson* whose plans created the first traffic-free shopping precinct in Europe, the first rooftop parking, a civic theatre and a circular market, with the main axis of the precinct aligned with the cathedral (well, the remains of, after the Luftwaffe reduced it to an empty shell). The city in question? Coventry.

I love his facial expressions at the end. It's good to see someone who is always so pleasant get peeved at another person

so close to 500K Xd keep it up tom youll get there ventually :)

Now we have malls adding more clubs and other amusements. Rotterdam Square outside of Schenectady NY USA just added an aquarium and a bowling alley and became Via Port Rotterdam.

"It's the reason I've been driving around looking for a parking space for about half an hour" - Well, at least you ARE finally driving, Tom!!!

This made me warm and fuzzy

Do a full video on shopping centre psychological tricks!

It's sad how badly his vision was ruined. I have been to and even worked in his malls. I find his ideas absolutely fascinating and it's a shame they haven't been realized on a large scale.