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If they refuse the money they are welcome to call the cops, but the cops will tell them the same thing.

This happened to a buddy of mine at the local station a few years ago.
He just left and went home and explained it to the cops when he called them. They ask if he would mind meeting him back at the station.
The cops ask him to say what happened in front of the clerk, clerk said yes, thats our policy.

Cop said.....Looks like you just gave the man a tank of gas...Thats OUR policy....lol

They have since taken that sign down.

Where does anyone see in the Constitution that you can do whatever you want to someone when your on their property AFTER they invited you onto it. The only power you hold as a property owner is to make the person leave. The thing is thats what you are trying to do leave! Its battery to force someone to open a bag, and its false imprisonment to hold someone for no reason.

The part where it gets tricky is when they have the shopkeepers law, but even those say reasonable searches, not indiscriminate searches. Once they invoke this law they are acting on behalf of the government and then they cannot break the Constitution. Just like the government can't write a law giving permission for a business to go snuff you out in your sleep. The government cannot give authority that it doesn't have itself.

So if your in a walmart they can ask you to let them search you, or to leave. They could even ask you to never come back again. Unless they have a reasonable cause to suspect stealing, and courts have agreed the denial of consent is not enough.

Some of you guys are right that the Constitution doesn't apply to people, but battery laws do apply to everyone.

They probably thought it not worth it, but if thay wanted to they could have taken that to court and won. The presence of the sign makes it a contract that you were in violation of. You would have to return the gas to be in the clear.

Cops are not lawyers and are not a valid source for interpretation of laws. If they were, then no one would ever be found not guilty.