to take your statement a step further than just retail, I'll say that the entire economy is effectively largely dependent on people spending money. Which is why trickle-down economics has been not working at all for at least a few decades and yet somehow this is still the resoning for tax plans.

the idea being that the 1% who has 90% of the country's wealth needs a little more to create jobs (from thin air)

whereas the truth is that people spending money is what will create jobs

it's such a shame