Chococo COVID-19 Update as of late July
Hello everyone, Claire here with another update on how we are operating in this time of COVID-19 as of late July 2020, as yet again things are moving fast again and we are doing our best to keep up.
Chococo HQ in Wareham:
We are still operating extreme distancing as we have nicknamed it, so have fewer chocolatiers & packing team members working at any one time and only 1-2 max in our office. So please bear with us if we are slow to answer the phone (we would rather you emailed us to be honest) and if your order takes slightly longer than normal to arrive. We are trying to get orders out as quickly as we can after receipt, and now that Royal Mail seems to have settled down again, most deliveries are arriving in the time frames that they should.
However, given that we are still operating with a small HQ team, we are not making as full a range of our chocolates as we would be doing normally, but we hope that the range we are able to offer is exciting and delicious enough to lift your spirits.
Chocolate Houses:
All our Chocolate Houses are open. Swanage is open 7 days a week & the others are only open 5 days a week -Exeter & Horsham: Tuesday-Saturday and Winchester: Wednesday-Sunday.
We are offering both our chocolates and a takeaway cafe service. However, we are now providing limited distanced indoor seating in all our locations & distanced outside seating, weather permitting, for you to perch on after making your purchases.
Please note that if you do sit in that we will ask you to fill in a simple contact details form to comply with track & trace. We will destroy these forms after 21 days. For those of you who are IT savvy, we also offer a QR code to provide your contact details via your phone.
Further, if you do take one of our tables either indoors or out, we ask that you do not move the tables as they have been placed there to comply with distancing rules & also that you stay in your bubbles.
We are gently expanding our cafe menu and are now able to offer a limited range of savoury scones & toasties, but we are still not offering chocolate fondues or sundaes for now.
As of July 24th, we ask that all our customers* wear a face covering when visiting us for either chocolates or food & drink to go or eat in. If you do sit in, we will ask you to wear a mask to order at the counter and only take it off when seated at your table.
* unless they are someone who is on the list of exemptions.
Each chocolate house is operating with fewer team members than historically, so please be patient and we have implemented a number of measures to help ensure everyone's safety:
* Extra hand washing & regular sanitising of hands by team members through the day
* Extra cleaning of high touch surfaces by the team through the day
* Tape outside each premises indicating safe distances to stand if you have to queue
* Posters in the windows indicating the maximum number of people allowed instore
* Signs & arrows to guide you on the one way system around the chocolate house (Swanage cafe & Horsham)
* Separate entrances for the cafe & shop at our Swanage Chocolate House
* Tape at marked distances to indicate where to stand inside whilst queuing
* Hand sanitiser at all entrances
* Screens infront of the tills to protect our team
* Contactless payments only
* Reusable cups accepted - see below for our new process
* Shop & cafe collection points for you to collect your order & paper carrier bags for you to fill yourselves
* Masks & visors for the team
Reusable cups:
Please note that we DO accept reusable cups for hot drinks - please take the lid off the cup and the team member will provide a tray for you to put it onto. Once the drink is made & returned to you, you just have to put the lid back onto the cup, so all we ask is that you take care to put the lid back on properly as the contents will be hot! So you get to enjoy your reusable cup discount again and together we reduce the number of (compostable) disposable cups used and it is a truly contactless coffee or hot chocolate!
Gift vouchers:
Currently we are able to accept generic £x value vouchers & large selection box vouchers in our shops AND chocolate afternoon tea vouchers in our cafe as long as you are happy that it is in a takeaway box & cup format! If you would rather wait for a full cafe service, that is fine as both our afternoon tea & fondue vouchers have no expiry date now, so will be valid to use as soon as we are able to offer fondues etc again in our cafes!