> Company executives and industry analysts blamed a series of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating theft and crime, competition, big increases in operating costs stemming from high inflation and the expense of servicing its debt … significant minimum-wage jumps.

But you keep reading just a little bit, and you find out this company is a victim of a leveraged buyout:

> The family management team … departing in 2013 The deal — which valued 99 Cents Only Stores at $1.6 billion — saddled the company with a debt load that turned a “conservative balance sheet” into a “highly leveraged capital structure,”

This is absolutely shameless. The owners put the company on incredibly shaky footing, then when a bump in the road comes up, they use it to do politics and refuse to take responsibility?