A bored shopper kept a spreadsheet so he could park in all 211 spaces at Sainbury's

Virgin Radio

28 Apr 2021, 16:50

We all have a hobby, but this one is a little more unusual.

Father-of-two Gareth Wild has spent the last six years documenting his parking habits at his local Sainsbury's.

He was determined to park in all 211 bays of the car park and came up with a method of tracking his progress.

Wild created a map and a spreadsheet to track his progress. 

He said he started doing this to make the weekly shop more interesting, and shared a thread on Twitter of his antics. 

On Twitter he posted his diagrams of the car park, should anyone else want to try his challenge.

It has definitely captured imaginations, the thread has been liked more than 100,000 times.

Understandably, Mr Wild said disabled and motorbike spaces could not be counted because he is not a blue badge holder and does not own a motorbike.

Mr Wild said: 'I do the weekly shop in our family and I've been going to the same Sainsbury's for the last 16 years.

'And it was only six years ago when I said to myself, 'wow I could probably park in every single one of these spaces given enough time', and time is on your side when you're doing the weekly shop.

'It's a long time to do anything, let alone something as trivial as this. I've been through three different cars in that time. I find enjoyment in the little banal things in life.'

His diagram includes 11 'god-tier' bays and 29 to avoid.

He said: 'I also assigned different zones - the more I say it the more stupid it sounds - to each of the areas so each time I went it was easier for me to know which ones I still had to tick off, rather than a scatter gun approach. I wanted to go into it fairly clued up, because when you're doing something this daft it's important to be thorough.'

Mr Wild soon found some spots were harder to get than others. 

He said: 'Without getting too technical, when I say B7 and B8 you'll know exactly what I mean. They were really difficult to get. I don't know what it is because they're not even great spots but people seem to love them.

'So I went down one evening for snacks quite late and I managed to snag B8. Ooh, that was quite a moment in my life.' 

He said: 'My kids are quite young, they're two and four, and they have no patience whatsoever, so if I'm sitting idly by waiting to try and get in a spot they're screaming at me. 

'Sometimes you've got to park where you've got to park, and give up on your quest.' 

He completed his challenge on Saturday, April 24.

He added: 'I don't want to make out this was too big a deal, but there was a moment of elation. It sort of goes from 'going to do it, going to do it...' to 'did it. Oh, I'm disappointed now'. Because the moment is done.'

So what's next?

He said: 'We've actually got a Lidl that's opened up just down the end of my road so considering that - I'm an equal opportunities car parker.

'Bromley's got some amazing car parks. The Glades is really top tier, but you're talking over 1,000 spaces there...I'll be there forever.'