Dad Repeats Parking Quest at New Sainsbury's After Bromley Success
A bored father has successfully completed a quirky mission to park in every single bay at his local Sainsbury's supermarket, replicating an achievement he first accomplished five years earlier at a different branch. Gareth Wild, aged 44, initially spent six years meticulously mapping all 211 parking spots at his former local Sainsbury's in Bromley, located in south-east London, finishing that task back in 2021.
New Location, New Challenge
After relocating to Devizes in Wiltshire during 2024, Gareth decided it was time to launch the challenge once again. He carefully plotted out all 108 available spaces using a satellite image of the car park, diligently logging each instance he parked in one. Only disabled and motorcycle bays were excluded from his endeavor.
Last weekend marked the completion of this latest quest, which took a total of one year, seven months, and two days to finish. Gareth relied solely on his routine weekly shopping trips and occasional resupply stops to achieve his goal.
Boredom Sparks Amusement
Gareth explained, 'Boredom was probably the starting point. I have to do the weekly shop, so it keeps me amused doing little things like this.' The dad, who works for a marketing company, admitted feeling a bit sad now that he has finished again, but noted he was more thorough this time around.
He kept all of his receipts and recorded the exact times he parked. The car park charges 70p per hour, or £1 on Sundays, resulting in a total parking cost of £89.20 across all trips. Additionally, Gareth tallied his food shopping expenses throughout the challenge, which amounted to £9567.26.
Easier Second Attempt
Drawing on his experience from the previous attempt, Gareth found the process much easier this time. He made sure to park in the more desirable spaces first. 'I made sure that I kept as much information as possible. Detail was the thing that I was really focused on doing more of,' he added.
'In terms of the parking, once you have parked in one car park, you have parked in them all. There was not much difference. It is a bit quieter here; life is a bit of a slower pace,' Gareth remarked.
Rating the Spaces
The dad categorized all the parking spaces into three tiers: 'God Tier', 'Useful', and 'Avoid'. His favorite two spots were A1 and A2, located right by the entrance. With two children aged six and nine, he mentioned this was likely the last year he could get away with parking in the family spaces without raising eyebrows.
Future Plans and Positive Reactions
Looking ahead, Gareth expressed a desire to continue challenging himself, with his sights set on the local Morrisons next, which boasts over 400 spaces. He noted that the online reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, with many people commenting that they are now inspired to try the same.
'It was nice the reaction the first one got. I thought, given that I had moved to a new place and still had to do the boring weekly food shop, I may as well resurrect it,' he said.
'People are really receptive to it. I don’t know what it is, but people really like a spreadsheet. There is almost a universally positive response. I think it connects with something. There has definitely been an increase in 'dull' content. I think it is just celebrating the mundane. My wife is fully supportive of my peculiarities,' Gareth concluded.
