About 'Cookies' and how we use them

What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files which are placed on your computer (or smartphone / tablet etc) by websites, and which collect certain data from you.
Some of these cookies are crucial to the way a website works, for example keeping track of what's in your shopping basket. Others perform less essential tasks like storing your preferences.
If you would like more information about what cookies are, how they work, and how to restrict their usage in your browser settings, there are many informative sites on the internet such as www.allaboutcookies.org

What do we use them for?
We try to put the bare minimum of cookies on your computer. The cookies we do use are:
Essential cookies -

• cart id: Keeps track of which basket is yours, so you can move freely around the site before going to the checkout
• sitepref: If you switch from our desktop website to the mobile site (or vice versa), this keeps you on the site you have selected.
• cookies_allowed: A record of whether you allow our optional cookies (see below). This controls whether our site creates those cookies or not.

Optional cookies -

• AddThis (_atuvc): This is used by AddThis (the service we use to allow you to share links on Facebook, Twitter etc.) The cookie is there to ensure you see an updated count if you click one of the share links.
  No data is sent back to AddThis (or anyone else!) from this cookie.
• Google Analytics (_utma/b/c/v/z): These are used by the Google Analytics service. They let us know how people find our site, and which parts of our site they use. This information is anonymous, and is not shared with any 3rd parties.

None of the cookies we use include any personal identifiable data, and we do not supply any data to 3rd parties for purposes like targeted advertising.

What control do I have?
You can turn off all cookies in your browser settings, but if you do so our website (and most other sites) will not work properly.

We also allow some control via the website itself.
The cookies we list as "essential" above cannot be disabled, as our site will not work without them. By using this site you agree that we can place these cookies on your device. If you do not agree, please do not use our site.

The cookies we list as "optional" can be disabled, but certain features of the site will not be available to you, and it will affect our ability to optimise the website to better suit your needs.

What are my current settings?

Essential Cookies: Enabled (these cannot be disabled, or our website will not function correctly)

Optional Cookies: Preference not set You have not yet selected whether to enable or disable optional cookies. We recommend enabling them, as some features on the website will not work fully with optional cookies disabled. This is a shared computer - do not remember this setting after I close my browser