Sea Salt Eatery is a summer destination in Minneapolis. But with temporary shutdowns and capacity restrictions, its been a tough season.

"It's going a lot better now, at first it was a little hard," said Swanson.

Like most seasonal businesses, the eatery has had what is likely their hardest year yet. And they say just as they were starting to figure things out, summer is coming to a close.

Meanwhile, up in cabin country, many of the big resorts say the impact of COVID wasn’t as bad as they feared.

"It was different for sure, but for all intents and purposes, it was a really great summer," said Madden's on Gull Lake owner Abbey Pieper.

Pieper says while they took a huge hit in corporate business, families looking for a driveable getaway saved them.

"We saw a huge increase in social travel," said Pieper. "So that was nice and made up for some of those groups that we lost."

As the Center for Rural Policy and Development says, COVID’s impact on these seasonal businesses varies.

"Resorts are doing quite well, some have even exceeded expectations," said Julie Tesch with the Center for Rural Policy and Development. "But it's some of those businesses like restaurants, shops along Main Street that are still not recovering and taken a bigger hit."

As all of them hope that work from home and online learning extend their summer business past Labor Day.