[from occupied ga]

True dat, but Costco seems to be selective about hiring and tends to keep employees a lot longer than most retail operations. Probably do criminal background checks on them too. I'm reminded of the woman who posted a rant about not getting hired at T J Maxx. She had just about every visible Sq inch of her body covered in tattoos with a number of piercings thrown in. She thought that MAYBE she didn't get hired because of her tats. Gee you think maybe?

I've never seen a Costco employee look anything like that.

[HombreSecreto]

Two other factors.

Again, thievery from the back door. Even if not employees, they can target the delivery vehicles. See those stories (somewhat related) about gangs going after train cargo in LA?

The other is the location(s) of the impacted properties. If they are in sketchy areas, close the retail use of the property and convert to low income housing.

For those locations, you save on staff labor, cut pilferage to zero, get some guaranteed revenue, and you can get reimbursed for damages.

If this works, expect to see A LOT of this going on with abandoned shopping malls in CA.