Ep. 147: Mall of America Through a European Lens

[00:00:00] Mall of America, it's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing attractions and events. And these are our stories presented by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Welcome to this episode of So Much More. I'm your host, Dan Jasper. I'm excited. It's just, I'm all alone today with a very special guest, which I'm excited about. Today's episode takes you behind the scenes at Mall of America, but through an international lens. Joining us is Lucas Wolfe.

[00:00:27] He is a correspondent and producer for RTL Group out of Germany. It is one of Europe's leading entertainment companies. Lucas is here capturing what makes Mall of America such a unique destination for audiences in Germany. During his visit, he's gone all in from getting a behind-the-scenes tour with someone like me, helping him with that, exploring everything from our interior landscaping and taking a look at Sea Life Aquarium to the Slime Break Showdown.

[00:00:56] And he's even spent time with our security operations. After experiencing it all firsthand, Lucas is walking away with a fresh global perspective of what sets Mall of America apart. Lucas, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Thanks so much. It's so good to have you here. Okay, so our audience is almost all US-based. So tell us a little bit about first your production show and what RTL is, if you would.

[00:01:23] Yeah, sure. So RTL is like a private TV network in Europe. So for example, RTL Germany is based in Cologne in Germany. Yes. And you can watch the shows like in three countries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Okay. So in all the German-speaking areas. Yeah. Awesome. And how big of an audience do you guys have? It's pretty big, right? It's a major group. Yeah. I don't know in numbers, but it's like one of the largest like private media groups there. So yeah.

[00:01:50] I love it. And do I need to, and I don't speak German. He knows this. I know one sentence of German, which I used on him earlier yesterday, and I probably didn't say it very well. Yeah. I'd like to go back and dig a little deeper if we can. What got you into broadcasting? Tell me a little bit about, you grew up in Germany. What led you down this path to become a journalist? Yeah. So I started in journalism, I think in 2013 and I was like an intern at a small TV

[00:02:20] production company. And then I, yeah, I continued working in journalism. And then at RTL, they have their own like school of journalism, which I did in 2017. And then I worked at RTL in Germany for a couple of years for a show, which is called Explosive, like explosive. And then I left Germany and I moved to Mexico City and I worked in Mexico City for a Mexican production company

[00:02:45] for a while. And then in 2023, so three years ago, I went back to RTL, but in New York and now I'm based in New York and yeah, working as a producer and correspondent. When you moved to Mexico City, another massive city, right? Very large. It's bigger than New York City, I believe, isn't it? Yeah. And do you speak Spanish as well? Yeah. How many languages do you speak? Only like German, Spanish and English, yeah. Well, you speak them, you speak English very well. We were talking about this yesterday as

[00:03:14] well as one of my envies is Europeans as a whole are multilingual. They speak several languages, so many of them. Many, yeah, but not everyone would, yeah. Not everyone, but a lot of them do. And you also travel, I love it. But you've also traveled around the world a bit, have you not? Yeah. I mean, in Latin America, when I worked in Mexico, I traveled a lot in South America, like to different countries, like to Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, yeah.

[00:03:44] During your work as a journalist, correspondent and producer, give us an idea of some of the different types of stories you've worked on during that time. Mostly it's not like typical news or like politics, it's more like entertainment, like these kind of lifestyle, human interest stories. For example, last year we filmed in Hawaii,

[00:04:10] like a family which lives next to an active volcano on the big island in Hawaii or in Brazil. I filmed like a guy who has nine wives and he was looking for another wife, so wife number 10. Stories like that, or the Mall of America. Just fun, entertaining stories, right? Yeah. What is one of the biggest obstacles or challenges you faced on one of those stories?

[00:04:36] For example, last year we did a story about the tunnel people, the people who live like underneath Las Vegas, like there's like many people living in the tunnels. And I think I needed like so many months or years to get permission to film there. And then we went, we went through the tunnels, we walked there and met the people there, which was like, yeah, I was really impressed.

[00:05:02] Were you impressed? I mean, these are people that are poor, right? They have nowhere else to go. That would, that would be a tough story for me to, for me to do. Was it challenging for you in that respect? Yeah, of course. Because yeah, you see the people living there and like really bad conditions and then you feel really sorry for them. But on the other hand, you cannot help them. I mean, yeah. Right. But it, I think it's good to tell the story, right? Make people aware of it. Yeah.

[00:05:29] The, uh, what's one of the funnest stories you've covered? Not the guy with 10 wives. I Yeah. But one fun story was, have you heard about the Kartnarks? It's like a famous YouTuber in Los Angeles. And you know, in Germany, when you get your shopping cart, um, you, you have to pay like a deposit, like of one, one or two euros and then you get the deposit back once

[00:05:59] you bring the shopping cart back. But in the US it doesn't exist. You can just leave the shopping cart on the parking spot wherever, wherever you want. And then he's like confronting people, Hey, you didn't bring your shopping cart back. And then they freak out. And, uh, when we did a story about him and yeah. Is it wrong that I actually know who you're talking about and I follow him? Yeah. I actually kind of admire him because shame on them is all I'm going to say. And by the

[00:06:24] way, we have a little grocery store in Minnesota called Aldi from Germany. You got to put a deposit in the cart. That's all I'm saying. So you've brought that tradition over here too. Maybe. Yeah. I like it. Um, what is, uh, what was one of your very first stories when you were fresh to journalism and do you have any mishaps or anything that you went, Oh boy, I can't believe I got myself into this. Wow. That's a good question. I mean, it was so many years ago, um, when I started, um,

[00:06:53] and I did like only like small stories, like, um, yeah, I don't, I don't even remember. No, that's okay. It was not that many years ago because you're young by the way. Uh, so, uh, you're, you're doing good. Tell me about, you've been at the mall of America now for three days, two days. I think it's our third day. So we arrived two days ago and so this is day number three. What was your first impression when you walked into the building and then into Nickelodeon

[00:07:21] universe? So, I mean, I saw some photos of the mall before and videos before. And so I, I thought, uh, I know what I, I, uh, what I can expect, but then I entered the mall and it was so huge. And I was so impressed by the theme park and it, it's way, uh, like much bigger than I, what I expected. So I was really, really impressed. When you walk in that first time, it is, and we talked about this yesterday a little bit. It's kind of like when you're walking around New York city, you

[00:07:48] know who the visitors are because they're all looking up at the skyscrapers, right? And the New Yorkers are walking really fast and saying, get out of my way. Uh, not you, you wouldn't do that. But, uh, and actually I love New Yorkers. Um, what are shopping centers like in Germany? Of course they also have a lot of shopping malls, but I, I mean, Mall of America compared to German malls is I think like 10 times bigger or many times bigger. And I never saw a theme park or a

[00:08:17] sea life in a shopping mall. And there are so many stores, for example, uh, maybe you can guess. So there's one store, um, they just, uh, opened in Germany, I think in March of this year and only in the mall of America, you have this store two times and it only exists now two times in Germany. So. Okay. We have a lot of duplicate stores, American Eagle maybe, or Victoria's secret or They said like, um, candles. White candle, candle, uh, yeah, the, uh, no, why can I not think of this? They're going to

[00:08:46] hate me for this. White barn is one half of it. Almost. Yeah. And the other half is, I'm going to let you say that. Bath and body works. Exactly. I wanted to make sure you got it right. So yes, bath and body works. So good job. Yeah. We only have two of those. Yeah. Two in the mall. Yeah. In Germany, they have two in the entire country. I mean. What can I say? Right. We actually have a lot of stores where there's two inside all of America. Yeah. Because it's so big. I mean, yeah. It's so big. We want to capture the audience, right?

[00:09:16] Right. Um, shopping culture is different. It's kind of unique to mall to Minnesota, to the United States, right? It, it, matter of fact, the very first enclosed shopping centers just down the street from us in Edina, Southdale Mall, uh, were the best. So I want to talk about some of your visits that you've had with different departments. Uh, let's start with when I first met you, you were wrapping up with, uh, I think it was James from our landscaping department. Tell me about how that went and what you learned from him.

[00:09:44] Yeah. So James, I think it's one of, one of five, um, landscapers and, uh, he showed us around and I thought, for example, some of the plants are like fake or not real artificial, but he, he told us all of the over 30,000, right? 30,000 plants are real plants. Yes. And I was really like impressed and surprised because I didn't, didn't expect that. So yeah, it was pretty. It's beautiful. And the way they care for our plants are absolutely amazing. Uh, I love it. They start their day really early

[00:10:13] here in mostly in Nickelodeon, but also within the Mall of America as well. Uh, there are a handful of plants just for viewers. Uh, fun fact. If you look up the log shoot, really ugly plastic trees way up at the top of the log shoot. Those aren't real. Just going to tell you for right here, but yeah, 30,000 live plants. Did he show you some of the unique or exotic plants? Um, yeah, the orange tree, I think we have an orange tree. Yes, we do. Yes. And we have giant birds of paradise. We have a lot

[00:10:41] of different trees. And the ladybugs. And the, we talked about the ladybugs, right? Yeah. Uh, which we just did the day before you arrived, I think, right? Yeah. Uh, we released all our live ladybugs. I know you also visited Sea Life Aquarium. Tell me about that because that ties in with nature and plant life too. What did you learn there and who did you talk to? You remember? Um, we didn't do any interviews. We just did some bureau shots of the, of the huge aquariums there. And, um, it was, uh, I mean, I know Sea Life from Germany, but, um, yeah, it's, it's insane

[00:11:10] to have like a, a Sea Life into a shop in a shopping mall. I mean, yeah, yeah. It's, it's massive. And, uh, the tunnel that you get to walk through, did you get to see behind the scenes at all above the pond? That's actually for, if no one's done that, if any of our listeners haven't done that, I would say schedule a VIP behind the scenes tour at Sea Life Aquarium because it's awesome. You, and you get actually, actually feed some of the fish as well, which again, by the way, I don't know if they still do this, but before COVID, if you were scuba certified, you could go

[00:11:38] scuba diving in there with the sharks as well. Yes. Would you be willing to do that? Are you scuba certified? I would, I would do it. I'm not certified, but I, I, well, we'll get you to go snorkel. Do you want to go snorkel with the sharks? I would do it. Yeah. Okay. We'll be back in 20 minutes. No, I'm kidding. We're not going to do that today. It would be awesome though, wouldn't it? Yeah. Um, I know you also spent some time with our security department. Tell me a little bit about what you learned and what surprised you the most from our security department.

[00:12:05] Yeah. So today we met Will in the morning. He's like the boss of all the security and patrol officers. And, um, he gave us some interesting facts and I mean, I wondered how, how it works because the mall is so big. If there's like a shoplifting incident, uh, how long does it take them to get there? But he told me it's only like three minutes. Um, so they have cameras everywhere and they are like, use like a really like kind of new technology, like face recognition systems. So

[00:12:33] to make them all like a safe place for people. We do. Will and his team are absolutely amazing. They incorporate technology. Like you said, our facial recognition technology, as well as the human resources, right? We have bike officers, patrol officers. Um, we have the people in dispatch. Did you see dispatch at all where they have all the screens and everything went into the room. It's just crazy. How many screens and people are working there. Yeah. It's like a

[00:12:58] big city. Yeah, it really is. Uh, and they do an incredible job of keeping this place safe. Um, well-trained people. I love them. Who else did you visit with while you were here at mall of America? And then we talked to, um, was it Jill? Jill, Jill from the marketing team. Yes. And, um, um, yeah, she, uh, we, we filmed like a meeting. Uh, they talked about the pop-up stores. You have them more because there's always like a new or different pop-up store, uh, where the main

[00:13:25] entrance is. Yep. And yeah, it was also like pretty impressive. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What do you have any other interviews lined up or have you pretty much captured everything you want to get for your show? I have. We have so much footage. So I think we are already done. Yeah. We're just doing some shots. I was just gonna say, if you need to interview me again, I'm good. You know that I'll do it. Um, do you, uh, did you get to go on any rides in Nickelodeon? Not yet, but, but I already got some, like a ticket. Okay. To try out some. Are you going to? Yeah. Which ones do you want to do?

[00:13:55] Do you have any idea? I want to try everything. Do it all. You got to do it all, right? Yeah. And you are here with a Photog as well. Who's also, um, native to Europe as well. Uh, it was the first time to Mall of America for both of you, I think. Right. And did he have some of the same responses as you? He also loves it. I mean, he's also impressed and he's, he said, wow, it's so huge. And, uh, he got already complained that he has to walk so many steps. It's a long way. It's a big walk.

[00:14:20] It's a big building. Um, what has been the thing that surprised you the most during your visit to Mall of America? Um, okay. So when we, when you enter the mall for the first time is of course the, um, the, the theme park and, uh, the attractions, the Nickelodeon theme park, it's just awesome to see it. And it, uh, yeah, I didn't expect that. Yeah. And of course, sea life is also pretty amazing. And, um, seeing all the real plans and, um, all the people there.

[00:14:48] Yeah. It takes, you know, the mall itself, we have about 860 employees, but if you include all of our tenants, there's more than 12,000 people that work in this building. So just the employees, it's like a city. And then you add a hundred thousand people a day, guests, a lot of people come here. Uh, we shared a lot of numbers yesterday as well. What do you think visitors from Germany who've never been to Minnesota or Mall of America, what do you think, first of all,

[00:15:16] should they come and what do you think they would like the most? Of course they, they, they have to visit the Mall of America if they're here in Minnesota, it's definitely worth it. And I think they have to bring a lot of time because I was also like, I'm surprised by how many people, um, they come here for vacation and they stay here for like longer, like for two or three days because it's worth it. And you can see, so yeah, you can see and do so many different things. So I recommend if you visit from like another country, like from

[00:15:44] Germany, you have to bring a lot of time, not only like two hours, but more like it's better like to stay two days. Uh, yeah. Instead of like two hours. You can't see it in a couple of hours. And in fact, bring an empty suitcase so that you can buy a whole bunch of stuff and take it back home with you as well. That would be another really good tip. Uh, we do have a lot of visitors. We have millions of visitors, international guests every year. Canada is big for, you know, because they're so close, but Western Europe and the countries in

[00:16:12] Western Europe are Germany, uh, Great Britain, the Nordic countries. They're the countries that tend to visit more than any that come here to Minnesota and Mall of America. So we love all of our friends from Germany. So we so appreciate you taking the time to come here. You're working on a story about Mall of America. Do you have any idea roughly when that will be airing and how our visitors might be able to see it when it comes out? So I definitely going to send the link, um,

[00:16:39] the download link to your social media. And we'll post that when it's time. Yeah. Then you can post it and share it with your audience, but, um, I don't know when they air it. It always depends. Um, sometimes it takes a week, sometimes a month. Yeah. Yeah. It all depends, right on news and other things that pop up, but it'll be fun to watch that and, and to do that. I'm not going to ask you who your favorite person to interview was while you were at Mall of America. Of course you. Oh, no, really? We actually had a really fun, we spent about an hour and a half

[00:17:08] together yesterday. I wish we had three hours because it, it really was fun. Uh, we appreciate that you traveled all the way here from New York on behalf of RTL and that you are doing a story on Mall of America. So we appreciate it so much. We invite all of our friends who see this, who are in other nations. We would love to have you come and visit as well. Um, where, if someone wanted to look up RTL, do you have a website or anything, or for any of the shows you've worked on anything you'd like to share? Yeah. So they have a website. Sorry.

[00:17:38] I can use this one. No, I don't need it. And so we have a website, of course, RTL.de is like the news website. And we have like a streaming platform, RTL plus where we, where you can watch all the stories. And, uh, of course, like Instagram pages you can follow like, uh, yeah. Awesome. They're all over social media, their websites. Uh, Lucas, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for taking the time to be here today, but mostly for being here for three days,

[00:18:03] being an amazing guest, but beyond that being an incredible correspondent and producer, you've done an amazing job and we're really grateful that you take the time to visit with us. Thank you so much. And for all of our listeners, all of our viewers, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of so much more. We love having you here. Please rate our show, give it a thumbs up, follow us, tell all your friends and watch for the link when we post it because it's going to be a fun story on Mall of America. Thanks for joining us.

[00:18:32] Thanks for listening to so much more. I'm all of America podcast. Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented by Bloomington Minnesota Travel and Tourism.