I may be making a blunder, but have found shallots at every grocery I have visited. Personally, I like the larger varieties as they are far easier to work with when cooking. If I have made a mistake in doing this, I hope folks will let me know! If you cannot find them locally, let me know how much you need. You wouldn't have any egyption or walking onions would you. That is what I need, though what I have read on the web says that they are ALL very strong, though my sister in law from Long Island swears by them. I HATE strong onions...so hope the sites I read are wrong.

I get shallots from the local food co-op. I know thet're not treated as they are organic. I planted some, inside in my grow room, in September as a control test and they are doing great. All 8 sprouted and are growing strong. I also planted three types of shallot seeds as a test. So far, all are doing well.

I tried shallots from the store last year and got nothing, this year I got some more but found that their growth tips were brown with a bit of gentle peeling to check. Many onions from the store are treated with chemicals to inhibit sprouting (sprayed on when green so it is drawn in through the leaves), or even irradiated to prevent sprouting (just enough to cause radiation sickness in the bulb, not immediate death).

Organic shallots probably would not be treated and should work.

I bough shallots from Asian Market(about $1/lb) and planted them. !00% success rate. I chose the smallest ones I could pick from the pile. So every one will cost just pennies. I planted two kinds; One variety had just one clove(looked like onions), the other several cloves. The first ones growing better.
This was the first time that I planted shallots. Their green tops look just like onions/scallions. Now I know that shallots are more like onion than garlic.