Your allowed to build a decent amount of random things from vending machines to useless trunks and shelves that have no real good purpose except to look good for a screenshot.
Sooooo.......How about this.
- Vending machines you place actually interact with NPC (Example: You take a carton of smokes and transfer it to the cigarette machine. Now settlers can walk up and buy a pack)
Same thing goes for the eat-o-tronic, nuka cola machine, etc etc. They already walk up to weapon benches and such and act like they are doing something, so why not more?
- Settlers now interact with shelves, containers, and tables. (Example: Settlers actually use the shelves to place random items and can be seen opening and closing containers)
- Perhaps allow the game to let random drifters stop by your shops and form a line as if they were to actually be purchasing something (These would not be settlers of your town and affect population and such) I came up with this because I essentially built a "Trading Hub" at starlight drive in, where most of my supply routes are linked to and have set up an entire area for shops, almost like a strip mall. I just really wish the place actually had some traffic to bring it to life.
- Assign settlers to be groundskeepers. (Example: Along your travels you usually come across mops, brooms, shovels etc. So why not bring those back, "drop" them and be able to assign settlers to them? Now they can be seen "Keeping the place up" and increase happiness)