This is exactly as stupid as it sounds but it is a sweeter and more fun story than you might expect. Yes, Gareth Wild, the man who parked in every parking spot at his local Sainsbury’s is a strange man, but he also appears to be a charming and funny man.

Wild, 39, lives in Bromley (south of London) and said on Twitter that he does a “big shop” once a week and wondered how many spots he’d parked in at his local Sainsbury’s over the years. Not one to just wonder, he decided to start keeping track.

“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,” wrote Wild on Twitter.

After counting all the spaces and crossing out all of the handicap spots and the motorcycle spots, Wild worked out that “there are 211 parking spaces that I needed to conquer.”

He broke the lot into sections to make it easier to find the spots when he was driving in and kept a little spreadsheet to track his progress. And although he should have been able to finish his project in just four years, it ended up taking him six thanks, in no small part, to the pandemic.

Wild finished the project on April 24 by parking in the F20 spot. He described it 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 Guardian.

As to his family, the people forced to live with this self-proclaimed lunatic, Wild said that his wife was very supportive. He adds that actually turned into a bit of a project for he and his daughter, which is very sweet!

Best of all, he’s almost certainly the world’s leading authority on the Bromley Sainsbury’s parking lot. And much like Volvo did when it patented the three-point seatbelt, he’s sharing this very important knowledge with the world for free.

The best spots are, pretty much as you’d expect, located nearest the store. The ones near the shopping cart returns are more nuanced, though. According to Wild, one should avoid the spots on either side of the bay, but one spot away can still be quite useful. Best of all, these learnings could certainly apply to any supermarket parking lot, not just the Bromley Sainsbury’s parking lot.

Wild took the time to recommend that people donate to the Bromley Food Bank, so we will, too. He also told the Guardian that he’s considering conquering the local Lidl’s car park next.