# bazar



## Daniel el Travieso

Hello. In Santiago, Chile, there is a store called "bazar" where you can buy pens, pencils, crayons, cardboard, rules, erasers, etc but in small quantities and mainly for shool activities. I am not sure if the English for this store is "office store". I would really appreciate if you could give me some translation. Thanks.


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## chileno

I am not sure now, but before they not only sold office supplies but almost anything. is that the same today?

In my time, what you described would be called "librería estudiantil"

Here I guess is Office Supplies Store.


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## Oldy Nuts

This discussion may be helpful:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=576287

And I agree with Pata: the word "bazar" indicates here a small store selling a wide variety of goods. Nowadays you don't find many in the largest cities, but they are very common in small towns.


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## Daniel el Travieso

OK, Chileno. For example, when you need to wrap a gift you go to a "bazar", when your kid needs some cardboard to work with at school tomorrow, you go to a bazar. I mean, you go to a bazar to buy school materials mainly. However, sometimes you can buy a small gift there for example a box of cologne, shampoo, etc. but small things. You can also get some batteries for you camera. But there you will never find food, drinks, medicine. Do you understand?


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## Daniel el Travieso

Oldy Nuts, if a foreigner is staying in a town in Greater Santiago, such as La Florida, Renca, Peñalolen, etc, and is invited to a birthday, he or she will need to wrap the present. The question will be "where can I buy some wrapping paper?" A local person there will answer: "You can find some in a "bazar". "A bazar? What is that?"


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## Oldy Nuts

You would also go to a bazar to buy thread, handkerchiefs, shower caps, shorts, scarfs, pins, ribbons, tennis balls, plastic buckets, kites, brooms, sunglasses, ... Yes, almost exclusively smaller sized articles.


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## Delphi

I'd call it a "corner shop or convenience store" if you also mean you can buy sandwiches, chocolates etc


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## Daniel el Travieso

Oldy Nuts, if a typical Chilean guy staying in the US needs to buy one of those items you have mentioned, what is the name of that kind of store?


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## Oldy Nuts

I don't know, wait for a native. The concept shoul be clear by now: a small store selling a variety of (mostly) smalled sized articles, and not by any means restricted to stationery.


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## Tango Foxtrot

Hi there,
I know what you mean.
Those little shops where you can buy a beach toy, birthday cards, bibs for babies, a bucket.. or a screwdriver. A bit of everything.

Here in ireland we used to called them "Pound shops", 'cause everything costed an irish pound (or punt) or fractions of that (ie, 2 cards for a pound etc). 
In the UK they are Pound Shops as well, but as Ireland is now in the Euro zone, they have changed their name to "Euro 2 shops", all for 2 euro (as equivalent of the old pound), although is the very same shop, and we still call them "pound shops".

However, I don't know how they call them in the USA, if that's what you're looking for..


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## Bilis

I think in English we'd describe a store like this by its main line of goods, so perhaps it'd be a "stationary shop" that sells perfumes etc. 
A general shop might also sell such a range of goods, especially in a village, but would probably sell food too, which bazars don't often do.
I think I might favour using *miscellaneous goods shop*. It isn't ideal but at least it conveys the correct meaning


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## Bilis

I must also say that I've heard local people (I live in Santiago) refer to a bazar as a tienda/negocio de regalos, so I suppose you could consider them to be *gift shops*


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## pachanga7

Bilis said:


> I think in English we'd describe a store like this by its main line of goods, so perhaps it'd be a "stationery shop" that sells perfumes etc.



Agreed. Also "paper goods shop" or "party supply shop" depending on the emphasis. 

But if it gets far off the topic of paper goods, probably "variety shop" is a better match.


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## Moritzchen

Daniel el Travieso said:


> Oldy Nuts, if a typical Chilean guy staying in the US needs to buy one of those items you have mentioned, what is the name of that kind of store?


Geez, you won´t expect this answer but you go to the pharmacy. The big chains, like Walgreens or Rite-Aid, aside from medicine and a *whole bunch* of other stuff, sell wrapping paper, gift bags, and boughs you can add to the package.


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## Oldy Nuts

Moritzchen said:


> Geez, you won´t expect this answer but you go to the pharmacy. The big chains, like Walgreens or Rite-Aid, aside from medicine and a whole bunch of other stuff, sell wrapping paper, gift bags, and boughs you can add to the package.



Moritzchen, what you quote is Daniel's way of explaining that he wanted to know the name of the type of store already described by both of us, not where one _can_ buy those things, which you most probably will find in any supermarket...


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## pachanga7

Yes, that's true, a drug store or Walmart is a good bet here in the US--even the grocery store carries those kinds of items these days. I thought the original question was about how to translate the kind of shop you find in Chile so "variety shop" might be good for that.


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## Moritzchen

Oldy Nuts said:


> Moritzchen, what you quote is Daniel's way of explaining that he wanted to know the name of the type of store already described by both of us, not where one _can_ buy those things, which you most probably will find in any supermarket...


Lo que entiendo es que quiere saber en qué tipo de tienda se compra el papel para regalo. También puedes comprar todo lo que listas en tu post #6 (fíjate en las ofertas semanales, haz clic en los links) Te digo, yo voy a la farmacia, (Rite-Aid, es la que me queda más cerca).


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## Oldy Nuts

Moritzchen said:


> Lo que entiendo es que quiere saber en qué tipo de tienda se compra el papel para regalo. También puedes comprar todo lo que listas en tu post #6 (fíjate en las ofertas semanales, haz clic en los links) Te digo, yo voy a la farmacia, (Rite-Aid, es la que me queda más cerca).



This is not what he asks in the initial post (my emphasis):



> Hello. In Santiago, Chile, there is a store called "bazar" where you can  buy pens, pencils, crayons, cardboard, rules, erasers, etc but in small  quantities and mainly for shool activities. I am not sure if the  English for this store is "office store". *I would really appreciate if  you could give me some translation*. Thanks.


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## Moritzchen

A ver si entiendo, que vendan únicamente útiles escolares?
Conozco esas tiendas por haberlas visto en Argentina y Uruguay. Por acá, no. Hay supertiendas para comprar artículos de oficina, donde encuentras compases, reglas, transportadores, gomas, lápices, cartón, cartulina... y también computadoras, muebles para escritorio, proyectores para conferencias, etc.


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## Oldy Nuts

Uf, no repitamos la discusión de los primeros mensajes, donde se aclaró qué se entiende en Chile (o al menos en Santiago) por un "bazar". *No* es un local que *sólo* vende útiles escolares.


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## Moritzchen

Trágate ese uf! Entonces volvemos a la farmacia como dije antes. A ver si daniel el travieso me explica mejor lo que está buscando porque parece que tú ya andas con luna.


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## Oldy Nuts

Moritzchen, esta discusión es de  Enero, y Daniel sólo inició unas pocas discusiones más, la última de ella de fines de Enero. No esperaría verlo aparecer de nuevo en ésta. En todo caso, si lees los primeros mensajes, verás quele interesaba saber cómo se llama en inglés de los Estados Unidos la tienda que acá llamamos "bazar". Y cuya definición está aclarada en esos mensajes iniciales.

De hecho, tú eres el único participante de esta discusión que no ha intentado buscar un nombre para "bazar", sino que ha insistido en decir dónde iría para comprar papel de regalos y esas cosas.


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## Moritzchen

pachanga7 said:


> Yes, that's true, a drug store or Walmart is a good bet here in the US--even the grocery store carries those kinds of items these days. I thought the original question was about how to translate the kind of shop you find in Chile so "variety shop" might be good for that.


This makes sense, now I understand. It deals with the size of the store more than with the stuff they sell then. Now it may be regional (according to Wiki they have Variety Stores in New England and you´re in the East Coast). Similar to that and to the Pound Stores mentioned by Tango Foxtrot, we have the 99 cent stores over here, but they are huge.
Y ahora, leyendo tu nuevo post Oldy, como le estoy explicando a pachanga por acá no tenemos algo así. (Y sí, no había leído las fechas de los posts).


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## Oldy Nuts

Bueno, ya estaba por creer que me estaba fallando la máxima de mi madre: "conversando, la gente se entiende"...


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## k-in-sc

Sounds to me like a dime store, the kind we had when I was a kid and that don't really exist anymore.


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## chileno

k-in-sc said:


> Sounds to me like a dime store, the kind we had when I was a kid and that don't really exist anymore.



Possibly. To me nowadays they are just convenience stores.


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## k-in-sc

No, a convenience store is totally different from a dime store. Maybe it isn't different from a bazar. But for one thing, a convenience store always has a gas station.


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## chileno

Well, a bazar is a convenience store minus the gas station.


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## k-in-sc

How is it different from a kiosk?


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## Oldy Nuts

k-in-sc said:


> How is it different from a kiosk?



K, I think your _dime store_ may be the equivalent that Daniel was looking for.

A _bazar_ in Chile (nearly extinct in the large cities, but still very popular in small towns and villages) is almost always housed in a proper building, such as ...well, yes, a house. On the other hand, a _quiosco_ is a small and light structure, usually standing by itself in a corner, and also usually selling newspapers, magazines, and a few small goods such as cigarettes, candies and the like. In most cases, the variety of goods you can buy in a _bazar_ is amazing.


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## chileno

I wouldn't use "dime store" as Woolworth was considered as one. So, a dime store is like a small department store of sorts.


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## pachanga7

Yes, "dime store" is also an anachronism. These days we have "dollar stores" to include the various chains: Dollar Tree, Family Dollar etc. But none of this is completely translatable to other cultures. That's why I suggest "variety shop" as most succinct and descriptive of what you've got in Chile. Otherwise you could just say "like a dime store" or "like a stationery shop but they sell other things, too" or "this place on Main Street where they sell toys and craft items and stuff" etc.


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## k-in-sc

Yes, the best thing is to describe it like that. Obviously it's not going to correspond exactly to anything here or anywhere else. 
Woolworth's was a big dime store, an international chain. There were smaller mom-and-pop ones as well. The one where we used to hang around and read comic books without buying them was called Horton's Sundries. ...


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