The term Potemkin village springs to mind. It's used to showcase a "pristine" version of a town to others, for media and PR purposes. While the reality is often something else not reflected here.
That's how I describe it too: Potemkin Retail. The elders don't like the other comparisons that we make to being lucky that there are at least bread lines. That means the store has bread that day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village