Insurance Covers Furniture Store's Loss Of Property, But What About Loss of Business PDF Print E-mail
Written by Justin Verbaggio   
Tuesday, 02 March 2010 18:15
Newspaper headlines read "Torrance Furniture Store Burned To The Ground." My wife's favorite Los Angeles furniture store, which we have shopped at for years, is now a pile of charred ruin. It took the effort of 49 firefighters to smother the flames. What used to be a beautiful, state-of-the-art showroom now comprised of a collapsed roof and chairs that burnt entirely to their springs!
by JustinVerbaggio


Newspaper headlines read "Torrance Furniture Store Burned To The Ground." My wife's favorite Los Angeles furniture store, which we have shopped at for years, is now a pile of charred ruin. It took the effort of 49 firefighters to smother the flames. What used to be a beautiful, state-of-the-art showroom now comprised of a collapsed roof and chairs that burnt entirely to their springs!

The cause of the fire? Arson. Did insurance pay to re-build the furniture store? Fortunately, yes! But how much business would be lost as a result of this furniture store having to relocate while their charred furniture store was being re-built? Why can't the fire insurance company cover the potential-loss-of-business too? I would guess that the cost for a new furniture showroom would only be a fraction of the cost of loss that this business incurred as a result of the fire.

In my opinion, there is so much more that insurance companies should take into account than just damage to property. This store, which is now burned to the ground, is nothing more than a charred pile of rubble. Potential customers, who remember the store because they've driven by it so many times, will be sorely disappointed when they show up to find it appears to no longer exist. Although they quickly relocated, this was 2004, the days before convenient iPhone web surfing. They had no easy way of seeing if the store had just relocated, or no longer exists.

We visited the store while they were at their temporary location. It was 2006 and they were still waiting for their original showroom to be finished! They said, "Being in this strip mall really hurts our reputation... Now we get people in here expecting us to sell them cheap furniture from China. How many people are showing up at our old showroom and assume that we're out of business?"

Bringing us up to 2010, they're now back in their original 13,000 sq. ft. showroom. It's exquisite and state-of-the-art. Insurance covered the cost of the re-build. Would it be too much to ask them to cover the cost to re-build the customer-base too?

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.

Do you happen to live in the Los Angeles area, then we recommend a visit to this premium, high-end Torrance furniture store. They have expert design staff on hand to assist you.