I do meet up with local customers in public places like parking lots, but I choose crowded ones, and it's for single animals.

My home isn't insured to have customers inside, and I don't have a store front, so it's either bring them to their home, or meet publicly. Most of my animals are shipped, so only local sales work this way sometimes.

A lot of other reptile keepers are paranoid about giving out their home address and having people come there, including some of my customers.
It's a shock to see something like this happen, though, but I'm glad the perp did not get away with the snakes.