Local hobby shops have usually close to nothing interesting in 1/700 except of a few of the typical plastic kits (and in many regions here, there are no local hobby shops at all). Even local online vendors have only a part of what is available world-wide.

China is currently the epicentre of kit production - plastic, resin (cast), and resin (3D printing) - at least for 1/700. They are not cheaper, actually, there are often more expensive. But they are very active and are producing new, better kits or at least new kits of ships not covered before.

The truth is that there are very few Western companies left, which are active (regularly releasing new kits) in 1/700. And these are distributed over many continents (Asia, Europe, Northern America)...