You learn something new every day. I had an email from a supplier today which said 'Ces prix sont FRANCO chez vous' Well I was a bit perplexed...what is Franco? is it another company I have to go to in order to buy their items? Where the hell is it? or is Franco like Franking in the UK? After googling FRANCO eventually I searched FRANCO livraison looking for a delivery company or the like and I came up with the following so I'm now informed Franco chez vous means postage included in the price...BONUS! I like Franco!
La livraison des marchandises ou des produits peut être expédiée Franco de port.
Dans ce cas, la facture ne comportera pas de frais de port pour le client.
Le fournisseur quant à lui, incorporera dans la fixation de son prix de vente, les frais engagés pour le port.
I go price hunting and thus far 'franco chez vous' has not had a hit on any of the sites. There are always low prices to be found by searching, often with livraison gratuit, actually €0.1 as it has become since the government outlawed free deliveries. There are numerous sites competing with each other. Search hard, wait a few weeks until the thing you have looked at has cookied you repeatedly but you have not bought, then it is about 50:50 there will be a special offer and the lowest price anywhere just to gain your loyalty. Yes, well that does not figure in my way of buying from them. I seem to no longer use UK ones at all because postage sends the price up to over mainland European prices, but occasionally German and Spanish instead, especially when they are special offers with free postage. I have found that the ones that include postage in the price anywhere rarely offer the lowest total outlay, so I don't really care about 'Franco'.
Delivery is never "free", it is a cost to the supplier/manufacturer so it is either charged separately or incorporated into the price of the product. Best deal I get is Amazon's Premium service which means free next day delivery for 40€ a year which as I place at least 1 order a week costs very little.