I am within 10 miles, say, of two or three O'Reilly's (used to be Kragen), an Autozone, Pep Boys, two NAPA's, and a local area chain which happens to be really, really good, so much that I rarely go to the others unless I need some little bubble-packed crap they have on the shelf. (One of the NAPA's is almost as good, but 'spensive as all get-out and in the wrong direction, so they're second choice.)
In your case, the trick is to find the good local place. You might check your yellow pages, looking for the wholesale places that the mechanics buy from. My local chain has two doors on the building, one with a big neon sign for us retail folks ... and around the corner, another unmarked one for the jobbers and wholesale stuff. I figure it says something if the local repair shops buy from them.
As for studs, you've lots of options. Dorman, famed for their Motormite and "Help!" brands, likely has what you need. You can prolly mail order them as required, just Google for the specific part #, but first see if they've a local dealer who isn't a chain with counter personnel who are only marginally more clueful than the McDonalds staff.
http://www.dormanproducts.com/Pages/Home_pg/wheretobuy.aspx
Oh, I also find it helpful when dealing with said counter monkeys, that you walk in with part #'s. "I need a Dorman
610-193.1", for instance -- it's hard for them to screw that up.
-- A