5. Someone who owns a store, and people wish to buy from him on credit, has no obligation to give them that credit, since his livelihood comes from sales and he needs the cash to purchase more merchandise. Besides, according to Halacha, extending credit is not considered a loan with regard to several issues. Nevertheless, it seems that if a poor person entered the store and asks that the proprietor sell him some merchandise on credit (so that he could earn a living for himself), and the proprietor can afford it, then he is expected to give the man credit. For although it does not technically] qualify for the mitzvah of giving a loan, it is part of the more general] mitzvah of supporting a fellow Jew that he not completely collapse financially and become a beggar.
