I’m sure i’m being dense here, but can you please explain the justification for fining a retailer for an unattended cash register? Also what’s unsavory about CVS/Walgreens?
In that way you don't want a Walgreens or CVS in your neighborhood in the same way you don't want a 24 hour liquor store in your neighborhood.
I live in the north Dallas suburbs. About 75% of the time the entire non-pharmacy part of any CVS store near me is completely unattended. About half the time you walk into any one of them you'll hear the robot voice going off because someone just walked out with whatever they stole.
These stores are every bit as bad at imitating Amazon's fascination with automation as they are at scheduling and distributing COVID vaccines. For that matter, my proposal of a $5000/occurrence fine for unattended registers would also pre-eliminate one of those ridiculous unattended Amazon stores from popping up in your neighborhood...
The same goes for grocery chains. It's pretty obvious that the word has come down from corporate to store managers at Kroger and Albertsons to try and herd people into unattended checkouts. In the case of the latter, I've seen them have an attendant not work a register, but face-to-face try to "invite" people to the unattended checkout. All of this while a dozen registers sit closed.
These would all be very easily solved by a municipality imposing a minimum number of attendants per square foot of floor space and a fine for unattended registers.