I've never had a bad experience at PetCo/PetSmart, but I'd imagine it does happen sometimes. I've only been to maybe a dozen or so around the country, so a very small percentage. I worked at a PetSmart twice and all the cages, even the fish tanks, were ALWAYS immaculately clean and generally well taken care of, save maybe a few minor, non life threatening issues. I did see a dead leopard gecko once at a PetCo, but after informing the staff it was immediately removed and the cage cleaned. Maybe I've just been lucky and only visited the good ones. Most of the whining I've heard were not to the extent your pictures show, mainly just simple stuff like the temps were 5 degrees too cool or the cages were smaller than they should be or someone pooped in the cage and it wasn't immediately cleaned up.