Bravo for standing up to the virtual juggernaut in Mr. Crain's commentary titled "E-Commerce won't become storefront of tomorrow" [Keith Crain, July 5, 1999].

As a consultant working with firms in business-to-business marketing through trade shows, I am constantly battling the unjustifiably large reliance on electronic commerce as the total solution. Looking just at the measurable results we can prove attributable to trade shows, it's impossible to fathom how a responsible corporation could justify making much more than the most routine, commodity-type buying decision without physically establishing product performance and confirming reliability.

Anything can be made to look perfect and substantive in the world of ether — as you have noticed in the latest Star Wars movie. But that world will never command sufficient credibility to replace the five human senses that are the foundation of sound decision-making in our rapidly changing and highly competitive world of reality. Who honestly thinks that successful business people will ever surrender that personal experience to the malleable intermediaries of computer screens and telephone wires?