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But she wasn’t paying in counterfeit money. She was paying in real US currency. They ran their pen across it, it was real. The cashier blows up and shreds the bills because she doesn’t think that “100” is a valid bill.

So let’s boil this down:

The cashier, *as well as the manager*, were too stupid to know that there is a $100 denomination in US currency.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. And the stupid prize here is that they get to enjoy sitting in court, explaining how they’re so stupid, (especially the manager) that they don’t know what the legit denominations of US currency are.

The manager deserves to lose his job. If he’s too stupid to know that there is a $100 bill in common circulation, then he’s too stupid to run a retail establishment the size of a newspaper stand, never mind a Walmart.

But she wasn’t paying in counterfeit money. She was paying in real US currency

Right, someone looked at the bills, made the false conclusion that they were counterfeit, and so the store's suspicion turned out to be false. Now, just how stupid the clerk or manager were (certainly ripping the bills is dumb), and whether either should get sanctioned or lose their jobs for not handling this better is a separate question from whether the customer suffered any harm which would be deserving of a large legal settlement.

Assuming the store did have the right to detain and investigate based on a suspected crime does not mean that they always must be correct in their suspicions to avoid liability for detention.

Their primary liability, and an actual false arrest, would have occurred if they had requested, and the officer had obliged, that the customer be arrested and charged based on their determiniation that the bills were counterfeit. Instead, the officer was asked to check the bills, which essentially meant he was aiding in their investigation, after which no arrest was made, and the customer was returned her money.

Yes, she should probably be given some SMALL amount to compensate for her time, and for the aggravation caused by the stupidity of the store's management and employees. I just don't see anything here to justify anything more than a few hundred dollars extra.