A lot of the Petco employees are actually animal lovers. Most are younger folks looking at some type of future in animal care or simply like animals. Some may not be up to snuff like we are, or most of us are, on reptiles, but I think they want to try to do the right thing.
I'm personally not a fan of huge corporations making profits off animals, but I think some constructive advice like this could yield good results.
You would have to be rather heartless to continually neglect something and if the approach is right, I think somebody would try to change the wrong.
More often than not, even the Petco snakes are a product of lack of education VS. deliberate neglect.
Nice job on pointing this out!