Greed drives wealthy merchants to exploit the vulnerable, landless poor. Driven by a desire to maximize profits, these merchants impatiently wait for specific times to pass so they can open their storehouses, sell their produce at high prices, and deceive desperate buyers.
The primary approach among commentators is that their impatience is tied to the agricultural and economic cycles designed to protect the poor. They wait for the harvest month to end, a time when the destitute survive on gleaned agricultural gifts and do not need to purchase food. Similarly, they eagerly anticipate the end of the Sabbatical year, during which the poor can freely eat ownerless produce. Only when these protective periods conclude are the impoverished forced to buy grain, allowing the merchants to aggressively inflate prices [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, רד״ק].
Others suggest the merchants are hoping for the declaration of a leap year. An added month delays the required agricultural offerings, preventing the consumption of newly harvested crops and making the merchants' old grain rare and expensive [רש״י, מלבי״ם, רד״ק]. Another perspective is that they simply wait for the current month to pass without rain, hoping a famine will strike and drive prices up [אבן עזרא]. On a more routine level, some explain that these impatient merchants are merely waiting for the days of rest from commerce, such as the New Moon and the weekly Sabbath, to conclude so they can resume their deceitful trade [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Alternatively, the reference to the Sabbath can mean a week, indicating that the merchants put the poor off week after week with various excuses, refusing to open their storehouses until the market value of grain naturally rises [רד״ק].
The ultimate goal of these merchants is to sell their grain, acting as providers who supposedly break and satisfy the hunger of the buyers [מצודת ציון, רד״ק]. Yet, when they finally open their storehouses, they abandon all honesty. Commentators agree that they employ three distinct methods of fraud. First, they reduce the standard volume measure, giving the buyer less grain than they actually paid for [מצודת ציון]. Second, when collecting payment, they use a larger, heavier stone weight to extract more money from the buyer than is rightfully owed. Finally, they tamper with the scales themselves. By intentionally bending and corrupting the mechanism, they ensure the scale always tips downward, falsely making the buyer's payment appear lighter than it truly is [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, רד״ק].