You could have stopped him with $100 dollar bill and a stout brass headed cane.
Drop the money in his path when he stoops down to grab it.
WHAMMMO!
Good idea, but he had a pretty good head start by the time I checked with the employee he had shoved to the ground. I had a pistol in my car but this isn't the type of situation that you could use it in without serious legal complications.
When I went back to the dollar store the employees had called 911 but said the police don't make it a priority if the perpetrator is already gone and no one was seriously injured.