Business Insurance for
Beer, Liquor, & Wine Stores
Owning a beer, liquor and wine store can be quite profitable. It lets you sell a product that is always in demand regardless of how good or bad the economy may be fairing.
Being successful with this type of business takes a lot of planning, hard work, and monetary investments.
Now that you’ve made it past all of those start up struggles, make sure you don’t lose it all by having inadequate commercial insurance protection.
General Liability
A general liability insurance policy protects your business from a number of potential accidents, hazards and disasters. For example, if a customer knocks a bottle of alcohol off the display shelf in your store and receives cuts and scrapes from the shattered glass, a general liability policy will cover his medical expenses. If a customer’s car is dented while in your parking lot, general liability will pay for those damages as well.
Business Owners Policy (Bop)
General liability can be purchased alone, but it is included with a more comprehensive small business insurance package known as a business owners policy (BOP). A BOP can be custom tailored to provide just the right types of insurance your liquor store needs.
- Equipment Breakdown – Equipment such as cash registers and refrigerators are critical to continued operations for your business. Replacing and repairing these items is expense when they break down. A BOP can cover those costs so that you don’t have to.
- Buildings and Contents – Your retail establishment and the physical inventory you have inside are also critical to your ability to run a profitable business. If a flood knocks down a wall or ruins the furnishings you have inside, you may find it difficult to cover the damage costs alone.
- Business Income and Extra Expense – Sometimes big disasters and emergencies can cause you to close your business for an extended period of time until repairs are made or inventory is replaced. This causes you to lose income and sometimes incur additional expenses.
- Products and Completed Operations (Included in General Liability) – If you sell products other than alcohol that are later found to be defective in some way; a BOP may offer you protection against product liability claims.
- Electronic Data – Any business files and records that you keep electronically can be protected from loss by a BOP.
- Newly Acquired or Constructed Buildings – When you expand your company, the additional structures can be protected by the BOP.
- Valuable Papers Protection – Your licensing and regulation paperwork plus required paperwork from suppliers may be costly to replace if they are lost or damaged.
- Employee Dishonesty Coverage – If an employee commits dishonest acts such as stealing from the cash register, giving free products to friends, or using company assets without authorization, your BOP can protect you from the losses associated with those actions.
Workers Comp
Legally you must cover your employees with workers comp insurance. This pays for their medical bills and related expenses if they are ever injured while doing their job.