Cookie Policy

Last updated: July 21, 2026

This Cookie Policy explains how M&S Butcher Equipment ("we", "us", "our"), of 36 Brearley Street, Birmingham, B19 3NR, United Kingdom, uses cookies and similar tracking technologies on msbutcherequipment.co.uk (the "Site"). It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains more generally how we collect, use, and protect your personal information.

Our Site is built on the Shopify platform, so many of the cookies described below are set by Shopify on our behalf in order to operate the store, secure checkout, and provide basic analytics. This policy reflects the UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (PECR), and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidance on storage and access technologies, finalised in April 2026.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They allow a site to recognise your device, remember information about your visit (such as items in your basket or your language preference), and understand how the site is used. We also use similar technologies such as pixels, tags, and local storage, which this policy refers to collectively as "cookies".

Cookies are generally grouped by how long they last:

• Session cookies – deleted automatically when you close your browser.
• Persistent cookies – remain on your device for a set period, or until you delete them, so the Site can remember you on a return visit.

and by who sets them:

• First-party cookies – set directly by us (or by Shopify on our behalf).
• Third-party cookies – set by services we use, such as payment providers or advertising partners.

Categories of Cookies We Use

The lists below set out the categories of cookies used on the Site, why we use them, and the specific cookies and typical durations you may encounter. Names and durations for the Shopify-set cookies are taken from Shopify's published Cookie Policy for merchant storefronts (shopify.com/legal/cookies) and are kept under periodic review, as cookie names may change as Shopify updates its platform.

Strictly Necessary — required for the Site to function, for example keeping items in your basket, remembering your currency and country, enabling secure checkout, and supporting password-protected previews. These cannot be switched off, as the Site cannot work properly without them.

• _shopify_essential (1 year) – core session, checkout and anti-tampering data
• cart, cart_currency (2 weeks) – basket contents and currency
• discount_code (session) – stores a discount code for use at checkout
• localization (2 weeks) – localises the cart to the correct country
• shopify_pay (1 year) – signs you back into Shop Pay at checkout
• login_with_shop_finalize (5 minutes) – facilitates sign-in with Shop
• storefront_digest (1 year) – supports password-protected store previews
• _shopify_test (1 minute) – checks the browser's cookie capability

Functional / Preference — remember choices you make, such as your cookie consent choice, so we don't need to ask you again on every visit.

• _tracking_consent (1 year) – stores your cookie consent preference
• A cookie set by our cookie consent platform, Pandectes, which similarly remembers your banner preferences

Performance / Analytics — help us understand how visitors use the Site, including which pages are popular, how people navigate between them, and whether pages load correctly, so we can improve the shopping experience.

• _landing_page, _orig_referrer (2 weeks) – record how you arrived at the Site
• _shopify_analytics (1 year) – analytics data for the storefront and checkout
• _shopify_s (30-minute rolling expiry) – identifies a browser session for the store
• _shopify_y (1 year) – Shopify analytics
• If we add third-party analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics), any cookies they set and their durations will be listed here once confirmed

Advertising / Targeting — used to support Shopify's personalised advertising features (Shopify Audiences), described in our Privacy Policy, for example showing you products you viewed on other sites. Shopify does not set any other advertising cookies on our store by default.

• _shopify_marketing (1 year) – supports Shopify Audiences personalised advertising
• Any additional third-party advertising cookies (for example, from Meta, Google Ads, or TikTok) are only present if we have added that provider ourselves, in which case they will be named here specifically

Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies are set by third parties who provide services on our Site, rather than by us directly. These include:

• Payment providers – such as Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Klarna, which set their own cookies during checkout to process payments securely and, in Klarna's case, to offer buy-now-pay-later options, in line with their own cookie and privacy policies.
• Social media platforms – if you interact with social sharing or embedded content from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, those platforms may set their own cookies in line with their own privacy and cookie policies.
• Shopify – as our e-commerce platform provider, Shopify sets the cookies listed above to operate the Site and, where enabled, to support personalised advertising features. See Shopify's own Cookie Policy and