-Walmart
-Big Lots
-Office Depot

I’m from Europe (Slovenia) and I can get them at Office 1 Superstore. Maybe one is near you: http://www.office1international.com/findastore.php

I can also get them at E.Leclerc: http://www.e-leclerc.com/c2k/portail/storelocator/etranger.asp

and also some local suppliers. Good luck!

Ballpoints are great because they are so sure-footed. The don’t bleed, or get messy, or feather out like rollers, or have too much ink flow. And they write on pretty much anything and are not affected by rain if the paper gets wet. They write on everything from high gloss paper, to odd carbon copy paper, to even napkins and toilet paper! Most ballpoints will write much longer than gels or rollers before running out of ink.

The down side is that sometimes the rollers and gels look nicer on the right types of paper because they have a much darker vibrant line.
Rollers, and even more so gels, have the added benefit of having many more colors to choose from (and they’re vibrant looking too)

as far as smoothness.. some gels and rollers require less pressure to write with but still give off a scratchy feel, whereas ballpoints may take more energy to get that thick oil based ink moving but they don’t feel scratchy when writing with them.

some of the down sides to rollers and gels are the fact that they bleed out if you stop writing for a sec and leave the tip on the paper, also the ink can have a sort of “feathering” effect when writing on the wrong types of paper if it has strong ink flow. Also, many gels and rollers will not write on many types of paper. High gloss paper comes to mind… The ink just globs up on the surface of the paper and looks like splatter droplets. Also you could never write on tissue paper with a gel or roller pen. And if the paper gets wet in the rain or something, the ink will bleed and run off the page. The ink supply on these are also much more limited and tend to not last as long as ballpoint ink supplies. And finally gels and rollers tend to always be more expensive than ballpoints, even at the economic level such as pens offered at wal-mart or staples.

Another company I stay away from besides Pilot is papermate… Papermate probably has the worse quality control of any pen company I’ve ever seen. Their ink cartridges have splattered ink all over the outside of the cartridge, and they don’t trim the edges and smooth out and finish off the pens, leaving excess plastic from the molds on the pens.. And their pens don’t lay down consistent lines making it look like the ink is always starting to dry up, or as if the ink is old.. And finally, everyone I know who uses lots of papermate products has had them blow up on them many times causing quite the mess.

Pilot Dr.Grip Equilibrium a.k.a.
Pilot Dr.Grip Center Of Gravity a.k.a.
Pilot Dr.Grip G-Spec

and

Pilot Acroball M a.k.a.
Pilot EasyTouch Pro

They both have hybrid ballpoint ink and a 1mm tip.

I also recommend the Schneider Slider series of hybrid ballpoint pens
(www.schneiderpen.de/en/products/penfinder.html) and my favourite:

Cello Superglide, Cello Liquid Express or any Cello pen that uses the same type of refill. These pens are perfect for me: they don’t bleed at all, they’re cheap and also unbelieveably smooth to write with (http://cellopens.com/superglide.htm).