Weekly update

As you're developing your family entertainment center plan, if you plan on catering to children 12 years and under, one of the biggest equipment costs will be your indoor playground equipment.

You'll have two choices when it comes to purchasing your play structure—buying from North America,Europe,USA or buying from China. Buying China will look very appealing, as their costs can be as much as 50-60% more expensive. But don't let that influence you—there are some very real concerns you should consider when examine before you purchase  indoor play equipment from China.

 Several fun center developers have learned the hard way about buying   indoor playground equipment from China.

Here is what several have shared with us:

1) A complete supply chain means lower costs—A china supplier can offer more cheaper  indoor playground  equipment. That  doesn’t means pads, nets, attachments and hardware can wear out in more than half the time it would take for a North American-made playground or other country made as same time as  to wear out. Also, China manufacturers build for worldwide guests not only one country, taking into account height and weight ranges. Chinese manufacturers tend to build high standard quality way possible.

2) Safety—Structural stability, eliminating pinch points, and other safety issues are stringently adhered to by  American manufacturers of playground equipment. They conform with ASTM and CPSC guidelines. Manufacturers in other country  don't need to follow these guidelines. This may be changing, but at the moment, there are no playground equipment police or inspectors that enforce ASTM.

Read more about Indoor Play Safety

3) Insurance—This relates to point 2. If your playground is not safe, insurance inspections will be problematic. Let's not even think about the possibility of guest injuries.

4) Components—We've heard several reports of everything from pieces of hardware to entire components being short-shipped. Chinese  manufacturers are much more rigorous in ensuring everything ships according to the order.

5) Shipping—Due to the epidemic, the current situation in the world is that China has a stable transportation and logistics system.An indoor playground from China takes much shorter to arrive than one from China, and typically doesn't need the hassles of being expedited through customs.

6) Assembly—China manufacturers will often arrange for the installation and set-up of your indoor playground, either with their own contractors or providing you the steps to get it done yourself. The playground from other country is completely a DIY project for you, and if you don't time your subcontractors and the shipment arrival correctly, your playground could sit on the docks causing a back-up of time and money.