There are a lot of businesses struggling to make ends meet this year. This is particularly true in the retail sector and there are many stores that are hoping that the upcoming holiday shopping season will give them the increase in profits they have been asking Santa for! We're all feeling at least hopeful if not exactly joyful that things will improve but there are some inherent risks for retail stores during the holiday season that they don't face at other times of the year. Consider the following risks and insurance solutions:
Problem: Your store may dependent upon a large national retailer or a very popular store near your location to bring shoppers in. What happens if that store has a fire or a similar loss which prevents them from staying open? Would you meet your projections if suddenly the flow of people near your store was drastically less? Solution: Verify that you have coverage for "Loss of Business Income from Dependent Properties". Put simply, this coverage will pay the difference between what you would have made had that other store not had a loss and what you actually made.
Problem: Most retail stores increase their inventory during the holidays but forget to increase the coverage on their insurance policy. That could mean that if there was a fire or a robbery that there might not be enough coverage to pay for the entire loss. Solution: Make sure that you have an "Automatic Peak Season Endorsement" on your policy. This endorsement will automatically increase your property insurance coverage limit by a set percentage during established "peak seasons" that way you won't have to worry about not having enough coverage when you need it.
Problem: With the anticipated increase in sales you will have an increase in cash on hand. It may be that you run out of time to go to the bank or your staffing doesn't allow for it and this money just sits in your cash drawers. Whatever the reason if this extra cash isn't deposited regularly it becomes a target for robberies which always increase during the holidays for this reason. This means that this long anticipated boom in sales goes down the drain. Solution: Verify that you have an adequate limit on the "Money