Most of the items I purchased were local purchase. The exception would be the Starrett Dial Calipers. I purchased my first Starrett Dial Cal. in 1978 when I went to tech. school. I never liked it. Compared to a B&S it had no feel. At the time Etalon made them for B&S. Still use it today.
Later when I was purchasing for the shop I could get Starrett's thru the GSA stock system. Different pots of money so I didn't have to justify them. I still don't like the feel but they are robust and out of 30 your so purchased I never had one fail the initial cal. and only a couple had limited initial cal. so the GSA stuff did better that most.
I did local purchase three cased sets of carbide faced B&S mics 0-12" with zero limits on initial cal. Worst for initial cal. was Interapid indicators all local purchased thru three different sources. They tended to fail the full range test. They are still my favorite and I true don't care about full range since they are never used in that manor.