I would suggest that all of the major manufacturers provide quality glass for most applications. Pricing is fairly evenly matched across the board. If you're looking for low pricing, go with the sales, or buy odds (first quality glass rods that are out of shape/size tolerance) rather than seconds (which typically has technical issues with the glass itself, such as color issues, can contain stones or bubbles, be off COE or have other problems.
People have had mixed results with Asian/Chinese color, as well as the borosilicate from India (Devardi?), so your mileage may vary there, but the prices are cheap. With the Asian colors, most of the transparents seem to be well behaved, I like the Asian dark blue transparent rod, for example. The Asian black and the white on the other hand, get VERY mixed reviews. Some love them some say they do nothing but crack.
Given that you've said Northstar is available at your local glass store, check out
this topic where I posted a list of (mostly) Northstar colors that are pretty good to start out with. They're my recommendations anyway.
Have fun.