If you own or operate a liquor store, you know there are many challenges, from staying on top of consumer buying trends to hitting your sales targets.
Then, of course, you have various business risks to contend with. All it takes is one customer slip-and-fall accident and a subsequent lawsuit to create the potential for a large legal expense. Or your store might suffer property damage from a storm or burglary. And maybe you own or lease a vehicle for making deliveries and picking up supplies, and an employee is at fault in an accident while driving it.
These types of incidents and others are why you need liquor store insurance. If you’re hit with a lawsuit or suffer a loss, payment has to come from somewhere. Without insurance, you may be required to cover costs from your store’s revenues or savings. If you can’t cover a liability judgment, for example, you might face severe financial trouble or even bankruptcy.
Liquor store insurance coverage helps you avoid that worst-case scenario and operate your business without worrying about liability issues, property damage, etc.
Do You Need Liquor Store Insurance?
The term “liquor store insurance” is used broadly to refer to coverage for many types of individuals and businesses involved in producing, handling, or selling alcoholic beverages to consumers. That includes:
- Independent liquor store owners
- Liquor store franchise owners
- Beer distributors
- Wine stores
- Distillery owners
- Specialty wine shop owners
- Beer stores
- Liquor handlers/inventory specialists
- Spirits stores
- Dram shop owners
6 Liquor Store Insurance Policies You Should Consider
Liquor store insurance is a type of business insurance. Companies provide it as separate policies that cover different risks. That approach benefits your business in a few ways. First, it gives you flexibility as you develop your business insurance portfolio. You can pick and choose the policies that make sense for your operations.
Second, it saves you money. For example, if your liquor store doesn’t own or lease any vehicles, you don’t need to buy commercial auto insurance. And while small business insurance tends to be very affordable, every dollar you save by not maintaining unneeded policies goes right to your bottom line.
So, what types of insurance do you need? That depends on many factors, including the risks you face, your business location, any regulatory requirements your business faces, etc. However, every liquor store can benefit from one or more of these common liquor store insurance policies.
- General Liability Insurance. “GL” insurance is designed for several risks, including injuries to clients and other non-employees and damage to other people's property you or your employees cause. It can also pay costs related to libel, slander, and copyright infringement, such as in your advertisements. To fine-tune your coverage, you can add endorsements like liquor liability, cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability.
- Business Owners Policy. Also called property & liability insurance, a business owners policy (BOP) combines general liability insurance with protection for the property you own or lease for your liquor store. It can also pay for lost income due to a covered event. As with a general liability policy, you can tailor your BOP with add-ons, including liquor liability, cyber, hired and non-owned auto liability, employment-related practices liability, and employee benefits liability.
- Workers' Compensation Insurance. Most states require this coverage for any company with employees. It helps protect your business if a worker is injured, contracts an illness, or dies due to an incident on the job. It can cover medical costs, legal fees, and lost wages due to the injury.
- Commercial Auto Insurance. If your liquor store owns or leases vehicles, this policy protects the business from potential exposure arising from accidents. It can cover your legal fees and the medical costs of others if you or your employee is at fault in an accident in your vehicle. It can pay for damages even if the vehicle is used for personal activities outside its primary business use.
- Umbrella Insurance. Every liability insurance policy has a maximum it will pay in the event of an incident, with your company being responsible for any amount over that figure. Umbrella insurance adds another layer of protection, potentially covering costs that exceed the limit of another biBERK liability policy up to its own limit.
- Cyber Insurance. You can purchase this coverage as an add-on to a general liability policy or a BOP. It helps cover expenses related to system hacks or security breaches where sensitive data, like client credit card information, has been stolen and fraud has occurred or there is a reasonable expectation that it might happen. It can also address the accidental release of sensitive information.
If you’re familiar with insurance coverage for liquor stores, you may know exactly what you need. But don’t worry if you’ve never purchased this type of coverage before—we provide various resources to educate and assist you. For example, there’s lots of good information on the product pages of our website. We also have written (and posted on our site) many articles on general and specific insurance-related topics.
Plus, our licensed insurance experts are available during business hours and happy to answer any questions you have. For example, how do you protect your business when employees use their personal vehicles to make deliveries? (Answer: That’s the hired and non-owned auto liability add-on mentioned in the product descriptions above.)
What is Liquor Liability Insurance?
Liquor liability insurance is a type of coverage you can add to a general liability or business owners policy. It protects your business against claims that one of your employees served someone who was visibly intoxicated or under the legal drinking age, and then that person injured someone or damaged their property.
Liquor liability insurance is crucial coverage for businesses that face this type of risk.
What Will My Liquor Store Insurance Cost?
As you might expect, several factors affect your liquor store insurance cost. They include the types of coverage you choose to carry, the size of your business, your claims history, and others.
You can determine what you’ll pay for different policies by getting instant, self-service liquor store insurance quotes on our website whenever you have a few minutes to answer some questions. But to give you a general sense of the cost of business insurance, you can typically get a policy with hundreds of thousands of dollars in coverage for as little as a few hundred dollars annually. That’s remarkable and reassuring, considering that even a minor slip-and-fall injury and lawsuit can easily lead to anywhere from a few to several thousand dollars in expenses.
Remember that when you purchase liquor store insurance from biBERK, you can save up to 20% over other providers. That’s because biBERK sells directly to you without brokers or other intermediaries.
And you can buy with confidence. biBERK is part of the Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group. That means we have the financial resources to pay approved claims fully and promptly. What’s more, we’ve proven over several decades that we’ll be there for business owners in a wide variety of industries if they’re sued or suffer property damage.
Insurance for Liquor Stores: Reliable and Affordable Coverage is Easy to Obtain!
At biBERK, our mission is to take the hassles out of buying (and using) small business insurance. We enable you to purchase policies online, with coverage active as soon as the next day in most cases. You can also manage your policies and report claims online for maximum convenience.
Learn more about insurance coverage for liquor stores from biBERK and protect your business today!
About biBERK Business Insurance
biBERK can help you with all your small business insurance needs, including: commercial auto, general liability, property and liability, umbrella, and workers’ compensation. https://www.biberk.com
Media Contact:
Rakesh Gupta | 402-408-2870