I would tend to agree with Vale 71. If what you are buying is coming from China anyway, there is really no reason not to cut out the middleman and save when its possible. On the other hand, if you are considering buying something locally made, it might be worth spending more on two levels.
First its possible that you are going to get a higher quality product. I don't know with every product but for example with tools I have a good selection of things like ratchets and such made in Canada or the US from my father. When I compare it to tools you buy now, which except for very expensive high end tools are made in China, tools made in China are noticeably less well made in my personal experience. Snap on tools made in the US are good quality but I don't have many new ones. Snap on branded stuff coming from China is not the same. I have a few things from China branded Snap on and they are not particularly good. So for things that you really need to count on it might be worthwhile quality wise to buy things made locally. With tools a really precise, durable tool can sometimes make the difference.
Second when you buy something made locally the majority of the money is cycled into the domestic economy. Workers who make stuff generally spend the vast majority of their wages each pay period, so there can be a strong economic multiplier effect from this. Its also the case that many industries build up support industries that are also good for the economy. If you make something, you need to purchase the tooling and raw materials, this can be a real boost for the economy, particularly in higher tech industries where designing and building the tools and equipment requires highly skilled decently paid people.
Much of the money from stuff you buy that a local seller has imported, or bought from an importer, goes directly out of the country. It ends up building/improving Chinese manufacturing infrastructure and making good skilled employment in China. That's good in a way, stable high quality jobs anywhere make the world a better place, but I don't want to give up on having these types of jobs in my own society. The people profiting from importing these things into Canada and the US make their living through buying and selling and tend to be wealthy enough that a large portion of the profits becomes accumulated wealth, rather than income spent on day to day expenses which really keeps the economy rolling. A large amount of money split between a lot of people who will spend it on day to day living, consumer goods, a boat, an rv, the family car etc. stimulates the economy infinitely more than that same amount of money held by a single very wealthy person who uses it to control assets that they extract profit from. Access to capital is important, but in developed countries today there is way more capital than is needed for the productive processes in our economy, and much of it just gets shifted around at high speed electronically looking for a very short term better rate of return, which is useless (or at least very inefficient) for any real productive investment in the economy that produces goods and services we need to satisfy society's needs and wants.
So buying imported stuff from a local reseller doesn't really help our economy in the same way that buying something produced locally would, in fact it helps keep importing finished products and exporting the wealth we have produced in our own society profitable. You might as well buy it directly from Ali Express if you can and spend the difference on beer or something else made locally by people who have decent jobs.
As far as quality control, its possible that you might have someone looking at the part before they ship it to you here, but only the biggest players have orders that are big enough that the factories are willing to change their production standard practice to get the contract.
All in all, if you are going to be buying a Chinese made item there is probably no good reason to buy from a domestic middleman than Ali Express.
Sorry for the wall of text trade and society is an area I am interested in.
I like to hear your opinions.
