Think inside the big box.

SOMEONE please answer this question for me: Why does Los Angeles so despise big-box stores? I mean, if Home Depot can't open a store without a lot of pushback in what seems to be a perfect spot--an empty shell of an old Kmart store in the ruralish Sunland-Tujunga area--where exactly can a big box open here?

Can somebody kindly explain the source of this special and abiding hatred Angelenos have for big box stores? Several cities here have passed anti bigbox stores, and some Rosemead city officials beat back a recall election last year after voting for a WalMart Supercenter. Jeez, the Taliban could open a chain of stores here and get a warmer reception.

I've asked the question a fair amount. Some answered that they don't like all the low-paying jobs. Some don't like the traffic. Some don't like the ugliness of big boxes.

These answers are sincere but they make no sense. Big box stores do not pay less. More traffic in L.A.? Please. Who would notice'?

The ugliness argument is silly, too. Long stretches of busy streets here are lined with zillions of old and cramped strip shopping centers that are unrelieved in their unsightliness. A new big box store here or there would be downright pretty.

Besides that, the ugliness argument doesn't work with the Home Depot store because it would go into a box that already exists and is empty. And for the record, I dislike shopping generally, and 1 really dislike shopping at big boxes. But that doesn't come near to being a decent reason for me to try to prevent others from shopping there.

So please tell me. Why the hatred for big boxes? My e-mail address is below.

Last Labor Day, I wrote a column lamenting the decline of the traditional two-week summer vacation. A two-week vacation is the best way to reconnect with the family and mentally snip the tether to work, I opined.

Two weeks? Suddenly that notion seems about as quaint as a California attorney general who actually does attorney general work. Suddenly, one-week vacations are on the endangered list.

Here it is almost Labor Day, and I can think of only a few people I know who took a one-week vacation this summer. One is my barber. I don't know anyone who took a two weeker.

It's not just me. The Wall Street Journal published an article a couple weeks ago headlined "Work Demands Edge Out Classic Weeklong Holiday."

More people, the article said, now take a succession of long weekends instead weeklong vacations, and it even quoted a woman planning to go to Europe over a long weekend. You can almost forget the two-week holiday: Only 14 percent plan to take such a long break, down from 16 percent last year.

There's an irony here. All the BlackBerrys and cells phones and Wi-Fi hot spots were supposed to free us from the workplace. They'd make vacations easier because we could reconnect with work any time we need to.

But the opposite has happened. We're tyrannized by the technology. Many of us can't enjoy long vacations because we're mortified by the knowledge that skyscrapers are building up in our inboxes and voice mailboxes. These days, you can get a bit of pleasure from a getaway, but true, deep peace comes when that little mechanical voice says you have no new messages.

Charles Crumpley is editor of the Business Journal. He can be reached at [e-mail].