Visit any shopping mall. The Eckerd redesign fails those tests. It would put a wide parking lot on South and a long side wall on East Boulevard. A nearby CVS Pharmacy also fails, even though developers placed the building at the sidewalk after negotiations with the Dilworth neighborhood. Along that sidewalk it offers only blank, fake windows.
People like to feel enclosed.
Wider streets require taller buildings to make you feel enclosed, but that enclosed feeling is crucial to luring pedestrians. Plus, multistory buildings offer more income for the land-owner, as upper floors can be leased for office and residential space. There's nothing wrong with drug stores in South End or on Providence Road. Mr. Cramton is right to say the problem is not use, but design.