I have a similar story, BW. We used to have a couple of good, small independent music stores around here but Guitar Center took over the market and now I've got to go about 100 miles north or east to find one. The guys at GC seem like good fellows but the don't often have what I'm looking for. We're lucky to have online sources like Stings and Beyond and even Amazon, which has some good buys on D'addario 3 packs.