The fact that you can easily make vague pontifications about what else they might have done doesn't mean that any of those things are actually viable for the business.

> I know it’s hard to imagine that retail work could involve any amount of skill or knowledge, but this is no doubt a loss of value.

But probably not enough value to be worth keeping them on staff, unless they did the layoffs on whim, like you seem to think. It is possible that they examined a lot of scenarios and are privy to a fair amount of relevant details to which the public isn't.