Fire destroyed a Torrance furniture store, just outside of Los Angeles, in 2004. The three-alarm fire, which required 49 firefighters to put out the flames, burned designer chairs down to their springs and even caused the roof to collapse. A beautiful, state-of-the-art furniture showroom quickly turned in to a hideous eye sore!

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?”

The good news is they’re now back in their showroom. It’s beautiful. It’s state-of-the-art. It’s full of exquisite fine furniture. But where are all the customers that used to frequent this place when it was in its pre-fire prime? Sure, insurance may have cut a check for $1 million to cover construction costs - that’s great! But could they at least eke out another $1-2 million to get the word out to Los Angeles residents that they’re back up and running?