HALIFAX -- As businesses begin to reopen, most are facing the new reality of physical distancing and regular cleaning, but for others the lockdown has already lasted too long. Some won't reopen.

In the second-hand bookstore he's run for 23 years, Wayne Greene is preparing to say goodbye.

Closed for weeks, he put a sign in the window of The Last Word, announcing its near-immediate shutdown.

Despite rampant rumours online, he insists he's not being evicted; it's simply time to walk away.

"It was to tell the people, who I shouldn't have told, as it turns out, they'd come back for a couple days, and I was trying to tell them that I wouldn't be open," Greene said.

And there are others who won't be coming back.

A Newfoundland-based chocolate company announced online it's closing its Nova Scotia stores.

Although malls are technically open, many stores remain shuttered.

According to a new survey, 38 per cent of Canadian businesses are up and running again, with significantly higher numbers in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

Nova Scotia remains near the bottom and business groups say it's time for the province to step up and provide direction.

"The sooner we get some clarity on this stuff, the better," said Jordi Morgan, the Atlantic vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. "That's what business operators are really counting on, that the provincial government's going to be able to say, 'here are the things that are necessary for you to operate safely for your employees to be safe for your customers to be safe.'"

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil says it's coming, but it won't be rushed.

"We will lay out a date when we're confident enough and feel comfortable enough, and we'll communicate that to businesses, give them time to be able to respond and organizations to be able to respond," he said.

Greene expects to liquidate his inventory in days, rather than weeks, but he'd planned to close once he turned 75 in a year-and-a-half anyway.

In the new reality of COVID-19, he says there simply isn't room for a place where customers come to browse and touch.

"And there's not much you can do with a bookstore," Greene said.

It's the last word in the final chapter of a growing list of business casualties.