I try to buy local and that includes grain usually, because I repitch almost exclusively now that I have a good rotation - 2206 and 802 for lagers, 1768, 1728 and WL 041 for a lot of my ales. I also go from light to amber/copper to dark and then step back through that progression to brew light colored beers, all without any problem getting the SRM matched fine.
If necessary, I will do a starter, but more often than not, when introducing a new strain, I will do a small batch first and pitch from that into successively larger batches to get to a 10 gallon batch.
Cheers to our LHBS and local craft brewers - they are both great sources.