It's a fair cop

I was caught today.

I decided to do the Sainsbury shop today rather than our usual Saturday morning.

The car park was bursting at the seams and I saw the potential for car park rage. Instead of succumbing to mindless violence I parked in non space.

Can I point out I was not parked in a disabled space, nor was I impeding either the flow or manoeuvrability of traffic and other vehicles. And I'd bought a ticket.

Just before loading the car with purchases I noticed a soggy piece of paper under the windscreen wiper. It warned me I'd parked in a non space and that was against the rules.

I mentally cursed the fact that there weren't enough spaces and what was I supposed to do anyway and should I put myself at risk by potentially being a victim of car park rage and and and. And actually I knew it was wrong but I had just spent £90 in the shop.

A man in uniform approached. "Uh oh." I thought. "A lecture is about to be delivered."

Tricky one really because I knew I was in the wrong, but nobody like to be told that. And actually we had more of a chat then anything, agreeing that if Sainsbury really wanted to sort the problem, there were better ways than slamming customers with £50 penalty notices, something due to start in the next couple of weeks.

I guess the solution, because the car park is a nightmare for most of the week when its practical for me to get there, is to be more organised and shop online with Tesco or Ocado. Why not Sainsbury online? Well we tried that but we didn't consider 30% of our order being substituted to be acceptable.

But the irony is that when supermarkets do deliver to us, they park on a double yellow line.