{"id":9829,"date":"2024-01-04T19:49:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T17:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=9829"},"modified":"2024-01-04T19:50:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T17:50:03","slug":"baucenter-kaliningrad-diy-store-with-so-much-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/baucenter-kaliningrad-diy-store-with-so-much-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Baucenter Kaliningrad DIY Store With So Much More"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Baucenter: If you don\u2019t find it there, you won\u2019t find it anywhere!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

4 January 2024 ~ Baucenter Kaliningrad DIY Store With So Much More<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wouldn\u2019t like to give the wrong impression, the wrong impression being that beer plays a disproportionate part in helping me to decide the topics of my blog posts. (Perish the thought, old chap.) Take this post, for example, is it about a pub, is it about a bar, is it about a bottle? No, this post is about a shop, a very large shop, which in Kaliningrad ~ where tradesmen are few and far between, and where, it would seem, the majority consider themselves DIY experts, which, without putting too fine a point on it, they most certainly are not ~ is a veritable institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shop in question is a humongous retail store known as the Baucenter. According to one of my brothers, \u201cIt\u2019s bloody handsome. It sells everything!\u201d Admittedly, and you\u2019ve probably spotted this yourselves, some hyperbole is creeping in here. For example, it doesn\u2019t, in case you are wondering, sell beer (shame!), but it does sell everything anyone could wish for if you are into Do It Yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not ~ not, that is, into Do It Yourself. I am rather more into SDIFM (Someone Doing It For Me), but as tradesmen are few and far between (Have you ever experienced d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu?), it is still incumbent on one to purchase whatever materials and tools are required for someone to do the job for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baucenter Kaliningrad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Baucenter (I believe there are three in Kaliningrad. I told you DIY is big business here.)  is not close to us, but I kinda like the bus trip, as it enables me to contemplate the various bars on route, purely, you understand, as each of them contain the sorts of things that I like, such as chairs, lights, windows etc. The Baucenter has all of these and a whole lot more besides, and although the store is vast, it is well laid out ~ everything in numbered isles ~ and the stock so well displayed that once you\u2019ve got your bearings and have passed your navigation exam, off you go with your basket, feeling rather smug if you know exactly where you are going and in the event that you don\u2019t, as enthralled as any explorer can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Baucenter<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Baucenter advertises itself as \u2018everything for construction, renovation and garden\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You don\u2019t say!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I do!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jewson may think it\u2019s \u2018got the Jewson lot\u2019, but the Baucenter\u2019s got more, by a long chalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExcuse me, I wonder if you can help me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI shouldn\u2019t think so for one minute. You look as if you are beyond help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for a long chalk.\u201d                                                                                      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, I see, that will be Isle number 69.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, what did I tell you: They\u2019ve got the Baucenter lot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools, light bulbs, wallpaper, paint, screws, nuts, bolts, carpets, curtains, toilets, patio surfacing, garden ornaments, garden tools, garden fences, garden everything, stuff you need to build barbecues with, stuff you need when constructing saunas, doors to put in door holes and the frames to go round the holes and doors, lamps ~ tall, short, squat, long, silly and not-so-silly \u2026 as long as the name\u2019s not beer, you name it, they\u2019ve got it! Or let me put it another way, you would not want to be tasked with making an inventory of this store!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rows
Excuse me, do you sell toilets?<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Washbasins
Don’t forget to wash your hands!<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One thing that has emerged from my brief list, which causes me more problems than anything else whenever I go hardware shopping, is not that the Baucenter doesn\u2019t sell beer, but that it does sell light bulbs, which is good if you want a light bulb. However, I am old enough to remember the time when all you needed to know about buying a light bulb was the wattage of the bulb. Nowadays, there are so many different kinds of bulbs, such a vast array of different shapes, styles and energy types ~ traditional filament, energy saving, LED ~ and new units of energy measurement that it is all too easy to be lulled into a sense of false security and then end up in the lighting isle looking perplexed and bamboozled. Watts! Lumens! BT! Bugger! Yet fear not thee who feel flummoxed! A helpful Baucenter assistant is never too far away when you need to be helped and assisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Off<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now that you have replaced the lightbulb that you brought to the centre for comparison with several assorted bulbs, no one the same as the other, and your shopping basket is burgeoning, it\u2019s time to take care of your tum. No trip to the Baucenter could ever be called complete without stopping off at its excellent caf\u00e9 for a bite to eat and drink. Did I say drink? Yes, as in cups of tea and coffee, or maybe fruit juice or a glass of still water. What do you think I meant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Baucenter caf\u00e9 is a proper caf\u00e9, as in an honest to goodness cafeteria. It \u2018aint fancy, nor does it need to be. With their tools a-swinging in their Baucenter bags, Do It Yourself kind of people want no-nonsense up-front nourishment, and they want it for the knock-down price of a packet of ordinary paintbrushes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the repast is over, novices like me are inducted into DIY, the first lesson being to collect the used crocks from the table and walk them to the tray cart on the opposite side of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s easily done, unless you are raving drunk, and of course you\u2019d never be that whilst shopping in the Baucenter, because the Baucenter has security guards with jackets saying \u2018Baucenter\u2019 on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More difficult than used crocks and Baucenter security men is being vegetarian whilst being in Kaliningrad. However, wherever I go to eat, I invariably manage to find beer <\/s>something minus meat, and the Baucenter caf\u00e9 is no exception. The last time I went there, I had some tasty salads, mashed potatoes, two different kinds of cakes for desert and a large cup of coffee. It did not cost me much, under a tenner in fact, and the quality-to-price ratio left me rather chuffed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As logical as day follows night, toilets have their respective place in the consumption and ingestion chain and suffice it to say that the Baucenter has them. They are handy for, but not limited to, hardware hauling handymen and anyone else taken short or acting in a pre-planned way before embarking on the long journey home. Hey, don’t forget your DIY sack!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mick
Do we have to fit our own cubicle?<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am not a great fan of shopping, but like a lot of things I\u2019m not crazy about, I do it. I am no fan of DIY and cannot imagine how anyone can be: \u2018Horses for courses\u2019, as they say. But when I\u2019m not beerlay (that\u2019s the phonetic spelling of Russian for poor, just in case you were wondering), an afternoon at the Beercenter, I mean Baucenter, is as good a place bar none to spend a pleasant afternoon and in the process walk away, having first paid, of course (remember those men in their Baucenter jackets!), with everything you could possibly need to complete that job in hand. Now, where did I put that bottle opener?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main thing:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Baucentre<\/strong>
35 Dzerzhinsky Street, Kaliningrad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tel:<\/strong>  <\/strong>+7 (4012) 999-500<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website: <\/strong>https:\/\/baucenter.ru\/store\/dzerzhinsky\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opening times:
<\/strong>Daily 8am to 10pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2018-2024 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posts Posts Posts<\/strong>
Kaliningrad and things that go clank in the night<\/a>
Hedgehog in the Fog seen in Kaliningrad<\/a>
Kaliningrad Leaves Autumn to the Leaves Suckers<\/a>
Beware of the Babushka<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent posts<\/h3>\n\n\n