Welcome to Herbert’s Space To Rant & Ruminate

These blog posts express my views.

I’m Herbert—not a name of my own choosing. My companion human refers to me as a “rescue cart,” situating herself as a hero in my story. And it’s not untrue. I was going to be melted down along with three hundred of my brethren. We were too petite: our owners were replacing us with a brand new fleet of carts with larger baskets for larger profits.

My companion human intervened and repurposed me as a mobile vegetable garden. In 2016 and 2017, we walk-rolled many kilometres, chatting with people about food security. I’ve long been a productive member of cart-human society, have had many life experiences, and developed multi-species communication skills.

But since my companion human didn’t replant my garden, I’ve been feeling empty.

To fill many voids in my life, I consume human media — movies, books, advertisements, tv shows, music, documentaries, poetry, news media — whatever my companion human consumes. (I’m sadly at her mercy.) In my new role as critic and cart-human diplomat, I’m interested in the presence and treatment of grocery carts in human media.

Inspired by Alison Bechdel’s criteria (The Bechdel Test) — but focusing on grocery carts instead of humans — I produce reviews (Herberts Ra(n)tings) whenever I can cajole my companion human into transcribing my insights. (Believe me, there’s a backlog!)

You can find my ra(n)tings here, alongside some collaborative musings and philosophical conversations with my fellow Cart-brethren (Herbert’s Ruminations). I hope these will contribute to greater understanding between carts and their human communities, and that we’ll eventually see peaceful cart-human coexistence.