Jim, you live in Commiefornia. Because of the moronic EPA there most Chrome goes to Tijuana to be done, then trucked back in to the U.S. That's why you pay that kind of money.
As usual, you "foreigners" get it wrong, in this case partially. In Northern California (about 500 miles from TJ), some the local chrome plating shops are still in business. My go-to shop did close early this year. The owner was not bashful about telling everyone his monthly EPA (that's federal) hazardous materials expenses, between 6 and 8 thousand dollars, which made plating expensive. All his work was done in-house. Another shop, located about two miles from me, preps the pieces to be done here, but sends them to the Central Valley, Modesto specifically, to be plated. The two pieces I referred to were done by that shop. Again, that was 15 years ago. That shop will stay in business simply because they plate items for the giants the High Tech industry, Intel, Cisco, AMD to name a few. The state harasses platers a lot, their customers (see above) harass the state. In Southern California, they do send just about everything to TJ. Remember, when in Mexico, don't drink the water.
Jim