In 2004, a three-alarm fire devastated the Los Angeles furniture store my wife and I have shopped at for years. It used to be a beautiful state of the art showroom. Now it was a heap of ruins. It took a team of 49 firefighters to douse the flames, causing the roof to collapse and burning chairs to the springs!
After doing some research, I discovered that insurance stepped in to cover the rebuilding costs (estimated at over $1 million). But what about the resulting potential business loss they would experience in the years to come? Why doesn’t insurance cover the cost of that too? It could easily amount to $4-6 million for a furniture store of this size, but I’m sure this furniture store won’t see a dime.
It seems that insurance should take everything into account, not just the property. This showroom was in a prime location on Sepulveda Blvd. in Torance. What happens when Los Angeles residents drive up to a pile of charred debris? In 2004, customers didn’t have the luxury of hopping on an iPhone to see if the store had moved. Instead, they may have simply driven down the street to Ethan Allen, who is only a stone’s throw away.
We visited the store while they were in their temporary location, because we needed to purchase a crib. It was 2006 and they were still waiting for their original showroom to be finished! They said, “Being in this mall really hurts our reputation… Now we have people here waiting for us to sell them cheap furniture. How many people show up at our old showroom and assume we’re out of business?”
Fortunately, they are now back in their original 13,000 square feet. exhibition hall ft. It may be state of the art, but where are all the customers? Will this furniture store ever flourish like it did in 2004? Insurance may have paid for a new showroom, but what if they get them to pay for new customers too?