There is no free money/loan, but there IS marketing or co-op money that a manufacturer may offer a reseller, OR money that a marketing department may say to another department "You can offer up $X.XX rebate on this line of products for this period of time" (for whatever reason).

For example, our company once got several thousand dollars in co-op money because we sold so much of manufacturer XYZ's product. However, we couldn't use that money for rebates (high-end computer systems at the time), but we COULD use this money for advertising (which we did on some of the local radio stations).

Later, when we opened up a retail store front, we offered rebates on computer hardware. However, these were from the manufacturer directly; we had no incentive as a reseller other than to tout the price of the item (in other words, we paid the same price to the manufacturer - which we bought directly from - regardless of whether there was a rebate or not).

As I moved from store to store with different companies, I saw the pattern was the same, except this time there were distributors between the manufacturer and reseller (which means the manufacturer sells their product to the distributor at a set price, who then marks it up and sells it to the reseller).

Again, the same price was paid by the reseller to the distributor (and the distributor to the manufacturer) whether there was a rebate or not; no loan.

In the case of a reseller rebate, every one I was involved in was done ONLY with the involvement of the manufacturer (ie, those co-op dollars I mentioned above). The reseller offered the rebate, consumers responded, and after all the rebates were fulfilled THEN the manufacturer reimbursed us.

You are assuming, I think, that every purchase of a rebate-eligible product that is not reimbursed is a loan. Because of the nature of the supply chain and reimbursement, that is simply not true.