JohnRender, isn't this: If people like something, they will tell 5 people, if they don't like something, they will tell 20 people. translatable also to: good news travels at a walk, bad news flies at lightspeed? cookies are the easiest way to "maintain state" so that the site can keep track of shopping cart items. without cookies a session would need to be started, which would require a distintive login to shop there. I personally think the cookies are much less invasive than requiring a membership / login to shop and would rather have the cookies. ( you can delete them when done. ~g~ ) though, due to the common issues around credit card fraud online, the membership / login is the only way to have information to try to protect yourself from it.