A dad has finally completed a five-year mission to park in every bay at his local Sainsbury's - after spending six years doing the same thing at another branch. Gareth Wild previously spent six years charting every spot in his local supermarket in London, finishing the task in 2021.

After relocating to Devizes, Wiltshire, in 2024, the 44-year-old decided it was time to restart the challenge. He plotted all 108 spaces on a satellite image of the car park, recording every time he parked in one, excluding only the disabled and motorcycle spaces. Last weekend, he finally finished the task, taking him a total of one year, seven months and two days, using his weekly shoppingtrips and the occasional resupply stops. Gareth said: "Boredom was probably the starting point. I have to do the weekly shop, so it keeps me amused doing little things like this. It was a little bit sad to see it end because it is part of your routine for so long that when it does finally end you have got to find the next thing to do." Gareth, who works for a marketing company, says he was more meticulous this time, retaining all of his receipts and recording the precise times he parked up. This car park costs 70p per hour to use, or £1 on Sundays, totalling £89.20 for all of the trips.

The father also calculated how much he spent on food shopping throughout the challenge, totalling £9,567.26. Drawing on his experience from the previous attempt - which covered 211 bays - Gareth says he found the challenge considerably more straightforward this time, having prioritised the most desirable spaces first.

He explained: "I made sure that I kept as much information as possible. Detail was the thing that I was really focused on doing more of. 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."

He added: "I would say it was probably easier this time because I knew what I was getting into. I made sure to get the more sought-after spaces first, and everything else could follow on from that. It was plain sailing."

The father categorised all the spaces into 'God Tier', 'Useful', and 'Avoid', with his top two being A1 and A2 - directly beside the entrance. With two children aged six and nine, he acknowledges this was likely the final year he could justify using the family parking bays.

Looking ahead, the dad says he's keen to continue setting himself challenges, with his sights now on the local Morrisons, which boasts over 400 spaces. He notes that the online response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, with numerous people commenting that they plan to attempt the same feat.

He said: "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. 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."

He added: "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 continued: "Somebody online actually offered to take me down on their motorcycle, and my aunt offered to come with me so that I could use her blue badge, but I don't want my stupid parking challenge getting in the way of people getting disabled spots."