Estuve for "went"?

[BobRitter]

Online-Spanish-Course. com "Daily Spanish Exercise" has:

Ayer estuve en la tienda de informática para comprar un escáner nuevo.
Yesterday I went to the computer shop to buy a new scanner.

I understand what they are saying but don't get the "I went to" instead "I was in". Why not "Ayer fui a la......."

[Julvenzor]

Yo tampoco, en los libros de enseñanza se dan dos circunstacias opuestas:

1) Traducen literalmente y engañan al aprediz.

2) Traducen sin literalidad alguna y falsean la gramática.

"Estuve" marca un estado, "fui a" (ir), una acción; como en inglés con "went".

Un saludo.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I think the reason for this is that they're not exactly translating, but using the sentence that would be more frequent in both languages. As for the meaning, Julvenzor is right; I might just add that "estuve" lets the speaker focus on the experience of being there and "fui" reduces emphasis on the fact that I spent time there choosing the item I bought. :)

[Tomisimo]

I agree 100% that you shouldn't translate something literally, word-for-word, instead you should translate the meaning. But in this case, the translation is wrong. It's very similar, but it's wrong.

Ayer estuve en la tienda... = I was at/in the store yesterday...
Ayer fui a la tienda... = I went to the store yesterday...