Thanks for the responses...
@ Don Heisz, I agree! Amplis who is the master distributor for Ilford Canada and should have the highest inventory turn rate and I think I will give them a try.
@MattKing, it could work however the one retailers would need to restock all three chemicals at the same time - timing for them may not work for me.
@Light Capture, Fixer I can test, Multigrade if it does not perform I can reprint but the film development does not offer a second chance. I will phone Filmplus to see of they offer DDX (not shown on their website)
@mshchem, like I noted above the fix I can reprint if the multigrade does not perform - but film development does not offer a second chance.
@pentaxuser, I would have similar thought as Light Capture and mshchem above.
At the core of this for me is that this hobby of ours is not cheap and I would prefer to get fresh chemicals for the money spent, especially for the film developer that does not offer a second chance to develop the film again if the first time failed due to old / expired / sub performing developer.
I wonder if Iford should consider doing further testing on their liquid chemicals considering there are fewer retailers that seem to have lower inventory turns and as a result may have inventory that is already approaching the Ilford "best before date" before it gets sold to the public.
My other option is redo my testing using powder chemicals.