Haven't noticed, i rarely need them anymore. I have no kidding probably over 1k pounds of welding rod kicking around here, plenty of consumables like grinding wheels (buy quality in bulk), and they don't even stock the stuff i prefer usually. I buy almost everything online, some of it is from a handful of mom and pop shops that sell nationwide like stumpfs or bw parts out of Arizona or something. Wendys pancake hoods or original pancake hood brand are both quality and i use both. Flip hoods get either a huntsman (490p if using a cheap lens) or fibermetal (pipeliner is the best), i like the pipeliner cut down and a flap of leather added. Outlaw leather out of Texas sells them already cut and leathered although heavier than i like (i use one of their arm pads, it's awesome). Amazon is ok for some stuff, as are sites like cyberweld.
Bottles are a different story, the best way to do them is to just bite the bullet, ignore the dipshit salesmen and buy the super large ones, ideally 2 oxygen to 1 acetylene. The salesmen will tell you that you can't buy them, but that simply means that you won't buy them from him. If you do buy bottles from a supply store and they exchange them, often you can only exchange them at that store, and they charge a maintenence fee that is 5 times the cost to test and certify them. Go online or to an auction and buy a few big bottles and be done with it. Find a place that will take your bottles, test if needed, fill them, and then you go pick them up again in a few days. You might need enough bottles so you always have some (stopping a project is very annoying), or if you tend to do large projects all at once then nothing for awhile you can rent them too. It should cost about 20 bucks every 5 years to have them tested and dot stamped, and they will usually last your lifetime. I've used bottles that actually had nazi stamps on them from the 40s, I'll see if i can find the pics.