Why oh why do you have to bring the US into this article ?
it's solely about Thailand's unemployment .... nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the US Costco business model.
The problem here is different, the big shops like your Tesco, Big C, Power Buys, Home Pro etc ... employ far too many staff .... they could cut them by 50% and still have them standing around doing nothing.
The problem here is consumer numbers are down, they are the worst numbers ever recorded except when COVID-19 was in progress.
The Thai people and expats are spending less, so if no customers then staff are not required.