Frequently rural, old, or old residential are just unmarked streets (typically barely wide enough for 2 cars) with no sidewalks, or bike lanes, at least where I’m from. In CA everything was built around the car, so I’d assume they thought no one would ever need to walk anywhere, since everything is probably miles away, and cars.
The ones in my area frequently have all the self checkouts open, and no registers with human cashiers open.