I'm pretty much stuck with doing mail orders. The closest nursery is 40 miles away and expensive. Other than that, there's Walmart and the local hardware store. DH bought a big bag of bulbs from Costco and they were rotten and moldy. They did refund the purchase price, tho.
Your explanation of the problems the mail order bulb companies are up against makes sense, June. And come to think of it, I once ordered some directly from a company in Holland. They took their sweet time getting them to me, and then the only things that grew were the free dahlias they included with my order.
