Kicking up a stink

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Posted at 1:13PM, 27 March 2009 by Andrea McGinniss - Editor, bbcgoodfood.com

Car parks are for parking your car in right? Well, as anyone who's ever used the lift or stairwell on the way out knows, they often double as toilets too. So bad is the stench in a number of British undercover carparks that one third of motorists apparently refuse to return.

To counter this, carpark company NCP are planning to pump some more desirable odours into the air. Those being considered include fresh flowers, cut grass, freshly baked bread, mint and fresh fruit, which, according to the 2,000 people they surveyed, are our favourite smells.

So, three of the five favourite are food related, but do we really want to smell them out of context? True, the closest I often get to pink grapefruit or kiwifruit is in my shampoo, but how far can this phenomenon go? Do we really want to smell bread in the carpark, or cut grass in the lift? I love the smell of fried onions and garlic, but I sure don't want a perfume based on it!

What are your favourite foodie smells and why? And would the smell of freshly baked bread have you queuing for a car park?

Comments

Emily

27 March 2009, 3:11PM
Emily

This just makes me feel sick. The smell of baking bread is lovely in a kitchen, but mingling with the smell of wee...? urrrgh. Why don't they just clean the stairways better? It's like that fabric spray to get rid of odours - why not just wash things!

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Juniper

27 March 2009, 11:59PM
Juniper

I have to agree with Emily, what happened to effort being made to clean places rather than masking smells ... I have to say I love the smell of fresh bread, roast beef in the oven, bacon under the grill or freshly made toast but certainly don't want to associate any of these delicious aromas with a rundown stairwell. Whatever next ...

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Chris Brack

30 March 2009, 8:52AM
Chris Brack

Realy good qualit ycoffee just ground would be one of my favs....but as the girls say why not clean the places up instead of masking the smells. Maybe use cif or cillit bang they clean everything.

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Danni @ olive mag

1 April 2009, 12:10PM
Danni @ olive mag

Every morning London Bridge as I arrive at London Bridge the smell of freshly baked pastry hits you as soon as you enter the station. I think they have some kind of fan wafting it out of the Whistlestop! If they were wafting the smells from a nearby bakery into the car parks of the south east, yes I'd be hungry, but it would certainly be an improvement on the aforementioned scents.

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Holly

13 April 2009, 6:39AM
Holly

Ah Juniper, a lady after my own heartt - the smell of toast gets me every time. But any smell of baking makes me weak at the knees. Maybe a carpark smelling of baking would result in me wanting to eat less cake - may be a good thing! But no, I'd rather it smelt of Detol or lemon Jif, leave the baking smells to the kitchens.

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