Do you buy local or import your trolleys from China?
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Genuinely curious what most people here do because I keep getting pulled in two directions. Our procurement guy swears by importing directly from Alibaba, says you save 40 percent even after shipping and customs, and we have done it before for other equipment with mixed results. But every time something breaks we are stuck waiting weeks for a spare part and the communication is painful. Meanwhile the local option costs more upfront but you can call someone and get a response same day, which matters when a trolley in UAE use is down and people are standing around. For our new branch in Fujairah we need about six units so the savings on importing would actually be meaningful, not just pocket change. The thing is I do not want to spend three months chasing a shipment and end up with something that does not fit our pallets anyway. Has anyone here done a proper side by side comparison recently and was the local markup really worth it in the end? Would love to hear from someone who imported a batch and either regretted it or felt smart about it.