That is so depressing to me. Sorry about them boys, they were/would've been beautiful fish.
It is atrocious (spelling?) at how LFS's will treat bettas. Yes, they're small, but look at it this way, would you rather spend your entire life in a messy cupboard or a proper house with a yard? Seriously, it's pathetic, considering you can get small tanks for bettas that are bigger than cups...
*crawls into a dark corner to grumble*
P.S. I just needed to add this on.
One time I went into one of the LFS's here & I was looking for female bettas, so I went straight to the normal tank they have them in & found NINE!!! male Plakats in the tank with a male Veiltail that was turned into a Crowntail.