Wait.... are you talking about grocery stores or factories? Facetiousness aside, your statement about thousand congregating and dispersing all over a community is true of grocery stores as well, with the added bonus of having a different mix everyday.
That said, I think you're right about severing all edges we don't need. No easy way out of this unfortunately...
You shop at your nearest grocer, or a nearby one, so the group mixing isn't that much. It's actually a fairly consistent group of people picking up eggs at the corner market. Tesla's autoworkers aren't paid enough to actually live in Fremont, so many of them are going to drive in from Stanislaus, Merced, and San Joaquin counties, creating exactly the kinds of long-distance links we don't want.
That said, I think you're right about severing all edges we don't need. No easy way out of this unfortunately...