Distressed?

I would really like some thoughts on this! I went into a little animal adoptions store, and on display were only two cages. One was a mommy cat and her two kittens, and the other was a single cat (he was hissing). The mommy cat had a bunch of bald patches, and I'll link to some still pictures from a video I took of her. They're blurry!
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9...3131104uw0.png
in this one you can see her belly, the underside of a front leg, and the inside of her back right leg. It's a bit of an optical illusion because it takes a bit of effort to see anything but the sad looking kitten
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/918...3132106lj3.png
here you can see the baldness on the bottom of her front leg
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1...3131810kj0.png
This is a particularly poor one, but you can clearly see the pink tip of her tail exposed

Now does this mean that the kitty needs help? Is this unusual and a DEFINITE bad sign?

Some of the patches seem to be around her nipples, which make sense to me if she had been nursing. Do you know her history? I would guess that perhaps she was a stray that went through some rough times and her fur just hasn't grown back in yet. If this is a pet store that really does adoptions rather than sales from breeders, I would ask them about her. They may have an idea as to what kind of treatment she's had.