This is about the 5th time I’ve stayed in Carmel over the past few years. The whole area has been under construction. This time, I got to take advantage of a new underpass that let me cross to the other side of the highway much more easily. The Mormon Temple presides not only over some cornfields and a few houses, but also over an impressive and still under-construction development of shops and stores.

The whole shopping area is anchored by a ginormous  grocery store, called Market District. Owned by the Giant Eagle chain, it has some of the best features of a Whole Foods, like a sitdown restaurant and absolutely stunning produce section (itself the size of a normal grocery store). It also has some of the best features of a Home Depot, including a footprint the size of a small village, and 25-foot ceilings. It’s hard to know whether such a store makes sense, but if bigger is better, this is absolutely awesome.