Friday Fun One: One man’s 6-year challenge to park in every spot at local Sainsbury’s

30th April 2021

Elias Jahshan

Gareth Wild 6-year challenge to park in every spot at local Sainsbury’s Bromley London viral social media Twitter carpark parking

Friday Fun One

A man has gone viral on social media after completing a six-year challenge to park in every car parking space at his local Sainsbury’s.

Gareth Wild, from Bromley, south-east London, said he decided to take on the challenge at the Walters Yard location after noticing his preference for certain spots.

“For the last six years I’ve kept a spreadsheet listing every parking spot I’ve used at the local supermarket in a bid to park in them all,” he tweeted.

“This week I completed my Magnum Opus!”

What followed was a thorough mapping of the 211 spots available to him – with disability spaces and motorcycle bays excluded – dividing the spaces into categories A-F.

I live in Bromley and almost always shop at the same Sainsbury’s in the centre of town, here’s a satellite view of their car park. It’s a great car park because you can always get a space and it is laid out really well. Comfortably in my top 5 Bromley car parks. pic.twitter.com/Q1CwLdFqJ3

— Gareth Wild (@GarethWild) April 27, 2021

Rather than walking around the car park counting each space and exposing myself as a lunatic, I used the overhead view to mark out a vector image to make it easier to identify each space.

— Gareth Wild (@GarethWild) April 27, 2021

I don’t own a motorcycle and I’m not disabled but I do have children so I can legitimately use the family spaces. This means that in the car park there are 211 parking spaces that I needed to conquer.

— Gareth Wild (@GarethWild) April 27, 2021

To make it easy for me to identify which space I was parking in I assigned each ‘block’ a letter and within each block, bay numbers which I would make note of on my phone and then add it all to my super awesome spreadsheet. pic.twitter.com/y785tdxhhw

— Gareth Wild (@GarethWild) April 27, 2021

For anyone keen on taking a pilgrimage to the Bromley Sainsbury’s car park to bathe in my glory I’ve also marked out the best and worst spots to park because I’m such a swell guy. Seriously though, avoid the spaces next to the trolley bays, they’re just terrible. pic.twitter.com/M5gNBRJwja

— Gareth Wild (@GarethWild) April 27, 2021

Wild completed his challenge on Saturday, April 24 by slotting his Skoda Octavia into F20, which he described as “a pig to get in”.

“I don’t want to make out this was too big a deal, but there was a moment of elation,” he told the PA news agency.

“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.”

His thread detailing the challenge has received tens of thousands of interactions, including hundreds of replies and questions from people wanting to know what the best space in the car park was, among other things.

https://twitter.com/GAMETelford/status/1387011934323724289?s=20

https://twitter.com/RobMajor4/status/1387237044552929280?s=20

“It turns out there’s a lot of questions about car parks,” he said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thread on Twitter where it’s been so unanimously positive.

“I don’t expect that from Twitter, because usually it’s a cesspit. So it’s been refreshing, and it’s certainly been a really fun 24 hours.

“The best space is… I mean comfortably you’ve got to be looking at C1. C1 is just gold dust.

“The moment you come in through the gates it’s the first thing you really sort of see as a space.”

Wild used three motors over the years to complete the car park – a Ford Puma, a Honda Jazz, and the Skoda Octavia.

“While a lot of people would mock the Jazz, it is actually a fantastic car,” he said.

“(It is) perfectly designed, and great for parking because it’s a big glass box – you can see everywhere.”

If you drove an Audi you'd have been able to complete this in half the time by parking across two bays

— PW (@waltonyeah) April 27, 2021

The car park completist also shared the wisdom he has accrued, advising people to allow for good access to their boot when doing a big shop, and to stay away from trolley bays where possible.

Wild said his wife was “always really supportive” while daughter Aubrey, 4, regularly joined her dad on parking missions.

“It sort of became a thing that we would do – having her along is a bit like daddy daughter time, you know?” he said.

https://twitter.com/andizeisler/status/1387454607979286532?s=20

"For the last six years I’ve kept a spreadsheet listing every parking spot I’ve used at the local supermarket in a bid to park in them all" pic.twitter.com/PjeJL83glB

— Steven  (@jezzacorbynstan) April 28, 2021

On Twitter, Wild said that a Lidl close to where he lives has the potential for a repeat attempt.

He also described car parks as “a good snapshot of English life”.

“You get all sorts of people coming in and mingling,” he said.

“Some of them park like arseholes, some of them just obey the rules and follow the signs.

“There’s always interesting people around – Bromley has got its fair share of characters.

“I just like being out and about and seeing those people.”