Coping with COVID19 - update from Team Chococo

Our Chocolate Houses:
* As of close of business Sunday 22nd March, our Winchester, Exeter & Horsham Chocolate Houses are now closed to ensure the safey of our teams. It was a sad decision to make but in some locations, sales were dropping fast and in others, some customers were sadly not respecting our social distancing measures, so we had to take drastic action to look after our staff.
BUT
Our Swanage Chocolate House is still OPEN for the moment:
* We are only allowing 2 people into our shop at any one time - there is plenty of space to keep your distance whilst waiting in the sunshine outside

* You can also "Click & Collect" if you would like to speed up your visit - just call the team to order & pay by phone on 01929 408288 & they will have your order ready by the door for you to collect at a time that suits you. 
* We are only offering a takeaway drinks & eats service 

* We are unable to accept reusable cups but all takeaway drinks will be served to you in our compostable cups.

* We are offering the reusable cup discount on ALL (full size) takeaway drinks 
* We are keeping our chocolate house door open to prevent you having to touch the handle

* Staff are constantly the number of times they wash their hands 

* We are sanitising all contact areas on a very regular basis throughout the day - you may hear timers going off regularly! 

* Sugar sticks, napkins & tap water will no longer be available for self service - please ask us if you would like such items

* Please use contactless cards if possible as we would really like our team to avoid handling cash

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We are part of the 'Swanage Indies Delivery Service' offering a free doorstep delivery service to anyone self isolating in Swanage & the surrounding villages.  We have teamed up with JJ Moores the butcher, Swanage Bay Fish, the Purbeck Deli, Swanage Dairy & Haymans Bakery, so you can order from all of them & between us, we will work out the logistics to get your order to your door! 
Click here to find out more about the 'Swanage Indies Delivery Service'

In return, all we ask is that you don't visit us if you, or anyone in your family, has been ill recently. 

We hope that our additional measures will have little impact on your experience at any Chococo Chocolate House, other than keeping you safe and well.

Our Chococo Kitchen & HQ:
* We have split up our teams as much as possible to reduce the number of people working at a time & cut down the risk of transmission
* We are operating pretty extreme social distancing - there is a lot of yelling going on from one end of the kitchen & packing room to another!
* As many of our marketing, finance & operations team are working from home, we only have a skeleton crew to answer the phone, so please bear with us if you get an ansaphone rather than a person. We are working, but communicating by email to: [email protected] could get a quicker response.

Our Online Service:
If you are self isolating during this time, you are still able to order Chococo gifts for delivery via Royal Mail.
However, please note that Royal Mail are now longer offering guaranteed pre 1pm next day delivery service.

Our website still has most of our range of handcrafted chocolates available for delivery across the UK, or if you prefer, you can call us to order by phone on 01929 421777.
Please bear with us though if we are slow to answer as we operating very lean at the moment to reduce the risk of transmission - given we are a small team, it wouldn't take much to put us all out of action!
Please do NOT wait until closer to Easter to order your Easter gifts - we have made lots of eggs & bunnies et al already & they are ready to ship now. They will be quite happy stored in a cool, dry (& ideally dark but that's not essential) place for the next 3 weeks.
To be honest, we would be much happier knowing that you will have your Easter stash ahead of time than let you down if, for whatever reason, we are unable to ship closer to Easter. Given the extraordinary pace of change at the moment, we are taking each day as it comes now.
 
Click here to view our Easter Collection 

We would like to thank you all for supporting us so far and we wish you & your families well as we navigate these unprecedented times together.

Keep safe and look after each other (& keep washing your hands!)

Claire & Andy Burnet, co-founders