Metro Jackson businesses take note! As electronic commerce grows, an important side effect will be increased competition with traditional businesses in any given local community. At least one study suggests that local merchants are, in general, ill-prepared to take full advantage of electronic commerce, and thus are unlikely to see any gains from it. Community Level Socio-Economic Impact of Electronic Commerce, a paper by Charles Stainfield and Pamela Whitten, is "must" reading for any business person desiring not to be run over by the electronic commerce steamroller. The paper is reproduced here in its entirety by permission of the authors and the publisher.