It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.
Inspired by a true story of friends building a kiosk empire by selling the dream.
It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.
Inspired by a true story of friends building a kiosk empire by selling the dream.
About the Show
Nostalgic
Nostalgic
Nostalgic
Before the rise of online shopping, the mall reigned supreme as a place for not only shopping, but as a cultural melting pot and glimpse into American culture.
Relatable
Nostalgic
Nostalgic
We all avoid eye contact with the notorious mall kiosk salespeople. While playing into this, the show makes fun of universal experiences in the mall, of entrepreneurs, and roommates.
Inspiring
Nostalgic
Inspiring
Following the perspective of young entrepreneurs, the series gives a blueprint for building a business; while showing the success and struggles along the way.
Series Overview
Explore the details of Mall Sharks the comedy series below.
Mall Sharks is the working title for the comedy series inspired by experiences from the life of the creator, Jacob Gaddy. The pilot episode was written by Jacob Gaddy & Jake Moehlenbrock.
Inspired by true events, four friends in their early 20s live together while navigating the success, struggles, and shenanigans of building a rapidly growing mall kiosk business.
The series is a single cam half hour comedy, set sometime in the 2000s, spanning 5 seasons. Think "Workaholics", meets "Wolf of Wall Street", in the sense that friends living together build a successful business - working hard and partying harder. While the story engine is the growth of the business, the world is full of mall nostalgia such as: mall walking seniors, loitering pesky teens, fresh pretzel's, and more.
Mall Sharks is a comedy that appeals to the 25-49 age group, those who grew up post shopping mall expansion across the US and pre-Amazon online shopping. The use of universal mall experiences makes the show funny and relatable to all types of people. It also serves to inspire entrepreneurship by giving a blueprint for building a business and an accurate glimpse into the challenges faced by small business owners.
Four friends in their 20s rent a house together and open a business at a mall kiosk selling a product called, "it". The product remains a mystery and running gag due to the fact that all sales are essentially the same, so the product doesn't really matter. For example, "Have you checked it out?", "It's 20% better than the competition, and comes with a lifetime warranty."
Being at a mall kiosks the team must overcome the negative view of kiosk salespeople from mall customers, by pitching and selling them as they walk by, with success, but some hilarious abuse and failure. Their persistence generates enough revenue and buzz to allow them to expand and open more kiosks without any investors or loans. As they grow, each season, the four founders upgrade to a bigger & better rental house, which started as the headquarters and continues to be party central.
During their rise they face many challenges including learning how to manage employees, inventory, theft, and competition. They grow and create loyalty by paying huge commissions, throwing massive parties at the owners house, and giving bonuses and prizes away monthly to reward performance. This culture creates a machine of growth, expanding while destroying competition, including corporate competitors with deeper pockets and executives the age of our employees parents.
The Owners:
Jace: He is friends with everyone and has a goofy outgoing personality. He comes up with marketing ideas and is great at branding. He's also a competitive beer pong player, and loves to bet on games. He is messy and unorganized, but creative and passionate about the business.
Jaime: Smooth talker that can easily stop anyone walking by in the mall. He's type A disciplined and an exercise fanatic, also super competitive which creates a healthy rivalry with Jace. He runs the sales department once they develop it. He also ends up with an unplanned baby in the first season, which changes his ways as a player.
Rene: She is a leader and helps keep the guys organized. She can sell with the best of them and is hilariously honest. She doesn't let anyone give her shit and will always have your back. She's also very well read helps negotiate leases and write franchise agreements.
Ted: Cousins with Rene, he manages inventory while completing his degree in supply chain management. He is laid back and likes to cook for everyone. He is a gamer and only works in the mall when it's short staffed in the early days, but runs manufacturing as it grows.
***All characters are fictional and do not represent any real people, but are combinations of attributes from some real people combined and edited to create the the story.***
Other Mall Employees, Friends, and Employees:
Lex: She works at Spencer's in the mall and is friends with the group, but closest to Rene. She loves to prank people using inappropriate gag gifts from her job. Her and Rene are often beer pong partners and refuse to let guys beat them in any contests. She's also a gamer and plays COD with Ted while hanging at the house.
Devante: He works at the kiosk next to our first location. He is someone we all become friends with from talking all day between pitching customers. We end up hiring him when the kiosk he works at closes up unexpectedly in the first season. He is a smart ass and funny for how blunt he is.
Ian: He works at the Shoe store in front of the first kiosk. He also parties with the group, but is reluctant to leave his job as an assistant manager after being promised manager soon. We do eventually recruit him in the first season when his job delays his promotion. We all have a friendship were we give each other shit like the characters on the show "The League".
Rocco: A mystery man we spot at a party as he jumps off the roof into the pool. We decide he must be our first hire for the new location and search to find and recruit him. He is a life of the party type, can make friends with anyone, and is always doing flips or jumping off stuff.
Lauren: She works at the pretzel kiosk, she is invited to a party by Jake and they end up having an unplanned baby. She is sister to Robo, which isn't revealed until Ep. 2 and works for the company as it grows and needs customer service reps. Her and Jake try dating, but it is often on & off again.
O.G.: an old man security guard affectionately called "O.G." by the group. He is very slow, so not an effective security guard, but a nice old man who is funny and always wants to talk. He often interrupts conversations to include his own experiences, which are awkward or inappropriate, but funny.
***All characters are fictional and do not represent any real people, but are combinations of attributes from some real people combined and edited to create the the story.***
Season 1: Growing Locally to Multiple Kiosks
Season 2: Opening Locations in New States
Season 3: Franchising Expands Reach Fast
Season 4: Corporate Competition Gets Heated
Season 5: Expanding to Countries Overseas
One example episode from each season below:
Pilot: "The Last Day of the Month"
Jace struggles to catch Jaime for 1st place in sales for the month, a title that comes with first choice of shifts the following month. Jaime works on courting a new girl from the mall. Rene & Ted prepare for opening the 2nd location.
S2 E3: "Scouting Out of State"
Jace and Rene travel to new prospected mall location in a popular city. Jaime puts out fires caused by a new employee and faces the first time letting anyone go. Ted covers shifts and meets a new girl while working at the kiosk.
S3 E12: "Quality Control"
Ted and Jace travel around to new franchisee locations to spy on the store and use random mall customers to secret shop. Jaime returns to the sales floor to create a competition with the employees for tickets to Hawaii. Rene negotiates new location leases and multi-location deals with large mall ownership company.
S4 E9: "David & Goliath"
Corporate competition uses its power to steal leases out from under the company by signing a much larger deal with more locations committed. Rene and Ted work to fight the lease termination. Jaime works to keep the employees motivated at locations under threat of closing. Jace searches for alternative locations as a back up if they fail to save the current ones.
S5 E5: "S.P.R.E.E."
While at the annual "Specialty Retailers Entrepreneurship Expo", the group meets an interested wealthy franchisee from another country. They get to know him partying in Vegas as he courts them and offers to franchise a large number of locations in his home country. Jaime and Jace are excited, but Rene and Ted are not as trusting of the possible franchisee.
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It's not a job, it's a lifestyle.