Most business owners shake off a bad review and move on. One Alabama ice cream shop owner did the opposite she went looking for the customer who left it. The hunt ended in a McDonald’s parking lot, on camera, and ultimately in a set of handcuffs.
The owner is Malary Goldman, who runs The Local Scoop Ice Cream Shoppe in Bay Minette, Alabama, with her husband Ryan. The customer is Daniel Smit, who left a one-star Google review back in March when the shop first opened, then promptly forgot about it. “Honestly, three months later, I had forgotten about it until she reminded me,” Smit said.
Here’s how she reminded him. Smit was working a food-delivery shift when Malary spotted and recognized him at a stoplight and asked to talk about the review. He agreed to meet her at a nearby McDonald’s parking lot after his delivery. According to Smit, the conversation went sideways fast.
A Fifteen-Minute Confrontation, Caught On Camera
Smit recorded the whole thing for nearly fifteen minutes. Malary lays into him: “I’m mad because I busted my [expletive] at something, and you think you’re going to run it into the ground.” The two trade jabs over each other’s looks and finances before she issues a warning: it would be “in his best interest” not to talk about her business. Partway through, husband Ryan pulls up and joins in. Smit alleges Malary touched him several times and that it turned physical.
It didn’t stay a parking-lot spat for long. Both Goldmans were arrested Thursday night. Malary was charged with misdemeanor harassment and criminal mischief; Ryan was charged with harassment. Both were released shortly after.
Online, the video did the opposite of what Malary wanted. “Nobody saw the review, everybody saw this,” read one of the top comments. Another, with nearly 10,000 likes, cut straight to it: “I don’t pay any attention to bad reviews. What I look for is how the owner RESPONDS.” Plenty figured the original one-star was probably earned. “I’m gonna guess the review is correct,” one wrote. And a few couldn’t resist the obvious: “Talk about the Local Scoop, lol.“
The aftermath, at least, took a contrite turn. Malary apologized, saying she was “embarrassed” by her actions. Smit said he was “ashamed” too: “I apologize to Miss Goldman if I made her mad or whatever. At the end of the day, we are all going to move on from this.“
Nearly a week later, the shop had reportedly lost its supplier the steepest one-star review either of them had ever earned.
