The man said he found enjoyment in the banal. Photo / File
The man said he found enjoyment in the banal. Photo / File
He describes it as his "Magnum Opus", a quest containing moments of joy comparable to the birth of his first child. It has taken him six years, but UK man Gareth Wild has completed his local supermarket car park.
The bored shopper has painstakingly used a map and spreadsheets to ensure that he has parked in all 211 bays at his local Sainsbury's in Bromley, southeast London.
His mission has now captured the imagination of thousands, with fans from all over the world thanking the father-of-two for being the "the right type of crazy".
Wild has even released a map ranking the spaces from "god tier" to those to "avoid" in case others want to make a "pilgrimage" to the store to "bathe in my glory".
The social media thread, including diagrams, spreadsheets and an explanation of his methods, had on Wednesday received almost 90,000 likes on Twitter and 15,000 retweets.
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. This week I completed my Magnum Opus! A thread.
After a decade of doing his family's weekly shop at the same supermarket Wild, 39, decided in 2015 that he would spice things up by setting himself a challenge.
Describing it as "comfortably in my top five Bromley car parks", he said: "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.
Wild used maps and diagrams to achieve the feat. Photo / Gareth Wild
"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."
Crossing off disabled and motorbike spaces that he could not use, Wild printed an aerial photograph of the superstore car park and divided it into zones to ensure that he did not miss a space.
Describing his life as "one long roller coaster", he would make a note on his phone of the space he had parked in and then add it to a colour-coded spreadsheet when he got home.
Beginning his mission in a Ford Puma, he saw it through in a Honda Jazz before completing it in his Skoda Octavia.
In a question and answer session for "car park nuts" on social media he revealed that "distance to shop" as well as "distance to trolley bays, ease of parking, bottlenecking" all had an impact on his preference for spaces.
Describing one corner space as "danger town" he explained: "If you're reversing out of there you're causing people to wait and Bromley folk have no patience."
Another, B8, he described as "a lovely space to drive into, it feels risqué but also like a familiar old shoe".
Another diagram shows Wild's preference for the various spaces. Photo / Gareth Wild
Asked to describe his emotion when he arrived to find all the spaces he needed to conquer were taken, the production director joked: "Getting all of Area B was the same sort of joy I had at the birth of my first born. Maybe better."
Finding one of the most coveted spots empty was only possible on a late-night snack mission, but he insisted that he would never go to the superstore just to tick off a space, describing that as the "car parking equivalent of doping".
In theory, on a conservative estimate of 60 visits a year, Wild could have completed the car park in four years.
But on some visits he had to abandon his mission as his daughters, aged 2 and 4, "have no patience whatsoever" and were "screaming" at him.
He saved a "fairly undesirable spot" for last and so "snagged it first time".
Gareth kept a record of the six years it took him to park in every one of the 211 bays available to him (excluding disabled and motorbike spaces). Photo / Gareth Wild
His story led others to come out of the woodwork and reveal that they have taken on similar tasks.
Keith Schofield also laid claim to being a "car parking space nerd" and said that he visits the same "500 different companies/hotels/supermarkets per year, from Aberdeen to Cornwall" and parks in exactly the same space each time.
Paul Gailey revealed that he had taken on the "dull but worthy" task of mapping more than 70 potholes in his town and classifying them for severity.
Now Wild has conquered the Bromley superstore car park, he has set his eyes on other missions and is considering taking on his local Lidl and shopping centre.
But for now he is basking in his new found fame, and is "considering calling up my old teacher who told me I'd never amount to anything".
