Community lots and retail have been a huge let down with Sims 4 I feel as not much thought was put into their design and why do we need a dozen community lot types instead of one strong system able to enable game play for them all.
I hope with Sims 5 they put a lot more thought into it and give you a reason to actually use retail maybe once a week your fridge becomes empty and you have to go pick up groceries at the store otherwise your Sim has to order take out until you do.
Retail needs a motivation to use it why go out of your way to purchase an outfit when all of CAS is unlocked and free they could also add things like perfume and cologne your Sims could use to help them attract other Sims useful helpful items to purchase that add in game play that is not available with your Sim just sitting at home.
Most importantly what they need to do is add in group activities to community lots and actually have the Sims you bring together hangout and not randomly take off. We need things on community lots Sims do together. If I bring 3 Sims to go out to play a game pool just because 2 are playing does not mean the third should go walk off on their own why not stand there and watch your friends or make it a game for 3 but either way community lots should be about community.
