Your second experience reminds me of a local gun retailer in my area. The shop owner is keeping a ball python in a glass merchandise case, with a thin layer of wood shavings as a substrate, no heat, no hide and a very small water bowl that was empty the two times I visited the shop. I asked one of the employees about the snake and it's living conditions and the guy said the owner use to sell Colt Python guns in that case with the snake. I guess the snake was considered to be nothing more than a sales prop. I asked an employee about the snake and he said the owner does feed it and gives it water but he didn't know how often.