Although 2002 e-commerce sales were $9.6 billion higher than 2001, online and mail-order sales combined increased only $5.3 billion (from $106.5 billion to $111.8 billion). In other words, nearly half of e-commerce's increase came at the expense of mail-order, not conventional stores. For evidence, please see line 4541 in both the 2001 and 2002 census tables, at www.census.gov/mrts/www/data/html/nsal01.html and www.census.gov/marts/www/data/html/nsal02.html Also, for evidence of a constraint to consumer-direct growth that few seem to have realized, you might find the surveys at http://www.smartbox.com/survey_sum.html of interest. Sincerely, David Porter