JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla -- It's been an active hurricane season so far in North Florida. First there was Beryl, then Debby. Even Isaac played a small role. All that rain forced folks to stay indoors for much of the summer and put a damper on area business's bottom lines.
Labor Day marks the end of summer. And for local beach businesses, that wasn't welcome news. A soggy season meant business wasn't booming until now.
"Business is awesome," said Allen Soto with Rentbeachstuff.com. "We almost got all our chairs filled up. Got a surf lesson here in a couple of hours."
Blue skies and a light breeze. It's a picture perfect Labor Day in Jax Beach. For Soto, it's something he's been waiting for all season. His livelihood depends on it.
"A beautiful day...if you don't have it, we don't have business," he said. "If it's cloudy and rainy, we can't even set up."
A few blocks over in Neptune Beach, mom and pop shops are also seeing an influx in spenders.
"Labor Day weekend has been fabulous this year," said Shorelines Owner, Patsy Bishop. "We've had lots of tourists, lots of families."
She says a light rain actually helps draw folks into the store. But Beryl and Debby dumped a lot more than she bargained for, soaking sales to the bone.
"We lost a lot of weekends in June. We had rain three out of the four weekends in June."
Monday she's thrilled to close out this season with a constantly ringing register.
Business owners say the good news is this is Florida and vacation weather doesn't end when the calendar hits September. So they're hoping maybe Labor Day can actually be the beginning of a profitable year's end.
