Kaufland

How far is it?

Distance 1 — Exactly 111 metres to the Optician’s Shop © Ricky Yates

The picture above is of an advert on the window of vacant retail premises near where we live. It is advertising an 80% reduction on the cost of frames and a 70% reduction on the cost of lens at an Optician’s Shop further along the street. But how far away is the Optician’s Shop? It isn’t a simple round 100 metres. Nor is it slightly further at 110 metres. No – it is exactly 111 metres!

This is an example of something we see quite regularly on a variety of signs here in the Czech Republic. An exactness in distance that borders on the absurd. For from where is it 111 metres to the Optician’s Shop? The poster itself is about 2 metres wide. From which end of it does anyone start measuring? And is it 111 metres to the beginning of the shop window, or to the shop door, or until one arrives at the shop counter?

Distance 2 — Kaufland is 1.1 km away © Ricky Yates

Distance 4 — Kaufland is 2.1 km away © Ricky Yates

Here are two more examples, this time for the benefit of car drivers, advertising how far it is to drive until you reach our newly opened Kaufland Supermarket. But surely 1 km and 2 km would do perfectly well? Once more it begs the question as to where in the Kaufland complex is the end point of this exact measurement. The route a car would take from the vehicular entrance on the public road to a car parking spot, well exceeds 100 metres.

If anyone can offer me an explanation for interesting Czech phenomenon I would love to hear from you. As always, comments are welcome. However, I do think there are some Czech people who do see the absurdity of this over-exactness with regard to distance. Possibly one such person is the owner of a shop called ‘Hardware & Software Services’, an interesting English name for a Czech business 😉 As you can see in the photograph below, this shop is only 1 metre away. However, the advert is on the side of the shop building and the entrance door is literally around the corner!

Distance 3 — Exactly 1 metre away! © Ricky Yates

Kaufland je tady! – Kaufland has arrived!

Kaufland 5 — Kaufland – Open from 07.00 – 22.00 every day © Ricky Yates

Back in September 2011, I wrote an illustrated post about the building work going on to create a large new supermarket on the site of a former bus depot that lies adjacent to the Rezidence Podbaba estate where we live. It was entitled Kaufland prichází! – Kaufland arrives! Well now it is Kaufland je tady! – Kaufland has arrived! On Thursday 31st May 2012, our long awaited Kaufland supermarket finally opened.

As part of the development, as I illustrated in my earlier post, the main section of the former bus depot with its curved roof has been retained and renovated. Then alongside has been built a wholly new two-storey building. This new building houses the supermarket with the former bus depot building now providing a large undercover parking area.

At the back of the development, a further undercover area has been created between the old and new buildings, to allow for large delivery trucks to unload their goods. Then the surrounding steep bank has been tidied up and suitably landscaped with the planting of numerous new trees.

Below is the photograph I took of the rear of building back in September 2011 which also appeared on my earlier post.

Kaufland 6 — Insulation, cement rendering & new construction in September 2011 © Ricky Yates

And here is a similar view taken mid-May 2012, about ten days before the new supermarket opened, showing the completed new building and new undercover delivery area.

Kaufland 1 — New building, undercover delivery area & renovated bus depot – May 2012 © Ricky Yates

Here is a September 2011 view of the side of the former bus depot building, also taken from my earlier post.

Kaufland 7 — Insulation & cement rendering on the side of the building in September 2011© Ricky Yates

And the mid-May 2012 view for comparison. Note the workmen completing the re-roofing of the building.

Kaufland 2 — Side view of the former bus depot building – May 2012 © Ricky Yates

Here are two more very contrasting views, this one below being once more from September 2011.

Kaufland 8 — The new extension under construction in September 2011 © Ricky Yates

Whilst this is the view of the vehicular and pedestrian entrance to the newly opened supermarket taken a few days ago in early June 2012.

Kaufland 4 — New supermarket complete with pedestrian an vehicular access – June 2012 © Ricky Yates

It is really impressive to see the considerable effort that has been made to preserve the original bus depot building and restore it to its former glory. It does provide a large area of undercover parking which will be a boon to shoppers when it rains, and especially in winter, when it snows. This newly erected plaque explains the history of the building.

Kaufland 3 — Plaque explaining the history of the bus depot building © Ricky Yates

It reads in translation:

This bus depot of the Electric Company of the City of Prague was built according to the design of J. Žák and Ing. A. Janda in 1931-1932. The building has a unique, large-span lattice structure roofing of the main hall, measuring 68.4 m The garage served for parking of municipal buses until 2005. The new owner, the Intercora company, conducted a conversion of the premises into a Kaufland shopping centre between 2010-2012. In the process, the garage hall has been retained, including its original steel structure, and in line with its original function, is now used for customer parking.

My thanks to my good friend Katka Bánová for this translation.

Kaufland prichází! – Kaufland arrives!

Today, 19^th September 2011, is the third anniversary of our arrival in Prague. Ever since then, Sybille and I have almost constantly lived next to, or very adjacent to, major building and construction work. In many respects, this should not be surprising as the Czech Republic bounces back from over forty years of Communist era stagnation, to now being the most economically prosperous of all the former Warsaw Pact countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

For nearly two years from our arrival, we had the fourth and final stage of ‘Residence Podbaba’ being constructed in front and to the side of our Chaplaincy Flat. As I mentioned in a July 2010 post, the dust and noise that building work constantly generated, was at times quite irritating and frustrating. More recently, at the beginning of 2011, the work on extending our tram line commenced and was only completed at the end of last month. And around the same time, work began on creating a large new supermarket on the site of a former bus depot that lies between the Residence Podbaba estate and the new Podbaba tram stop.

As you can see from the accompanying photograph, our new supermarket will be part of the German owned Kaufland retail group, who already have numerous supermarkets in Prague and elsewhere in the Czech Republic. The billboard proclaims that “Kaufland arrives” but does not yet tell us exactly when it will!

These first two photographs were taken in mid-February this year and show the early stages of this new development. Whilst the main building with its curved roof is being retained, some rather ugly concrete flat-roofed extensions were demolished.

These next two pictures were taken in May. They show how the site surrounding the main building was completely cleared. Also, if you look closely, you will see that all of the glass in the triangular shaped roof-lights has been completely removed.

These two pictures were taken earlier this month. As you can see, as well as the roof-lights having been re-glazed, the exterior walls have been insulated, then cement rendered and painted. Work on insulating the lower section of wall at the far end of the building was in progress at the time I took the first photograph, as it was on the higher part of the side of the building which can be seen in the second photograph. Beyond that, the framework of a new extension to the former bus depot was in the process of being erected.

Here you can see that new extension under construction, this picture being obviously taken from a different vantage point to the previous six! Work continues and I promise to write an update with new photographs in due course.

To have this new supermarket right on our doorstep, will be a great boon. But we do wonder some times whether we will ever cease to have construction work going on around us or whether it will only all come to completion just as we are about leave and move on!