A bad review of a Bay Minette ice cream shop turned into a heated face-to-face confrontation, and now the shop owner and her husband are facing charges, according to a WEAR Channel 3 News report by Hailey Samples.
Samples reported that customer Daniel Smit left a negative online review after visiting Local Scoop, the newest ice cream shop in town, during its grand opening back in March.
Smit said he had hoped to try some of his favorite ice cream flavors, but the visit did not go the way he expected.
“Just didn’t have a good experience, so I wrote a bad review,” Smit told WEAR News.
Shop owner Malary White Goldman saw things differently. According to Samples, Goldman viewed the review as an attack on her business, and the dispute eventually spilled out of the internet and into a confrontation that was caught on cell phone video.
A Review After A Bad Visit
Samples reported that Smit’s review criticized the shop’s decorations and claimed employees messed up his order.
For Smit, it sounded like a normal customer review. He told the station he leaves reviews often, whether his experience is good or bad.
“I didn’t think nothing of it until she reminded me of it,” Smit said.
That is one of the stranger parts of the story. A review can feel small to the person writing it, especially in a world where people rate everything from restaurants to gas stations to barbershops. But for a small business owner, one public complaint can feel personal, especially when the business is new and still trying to make its name.
Still, there is a big gap between being upset about a review and tracking down the person who wrote it.
Samples said Smit claims Goldman later deleted posts tied to the review, then this week tracked him down to confront him about what he had written.
WEAR News said it called Goldman for her side of the story, but she declined to comment.
The Cell Phone Video Turns Heated
The confrontation was recorded, and Samples said the video included profanity, insults, and allegations.
In the footage, Goldman can be heard telling Smit, “Don’t you ever, ever worry about the Local Scoop again, okay?”
Goldman also said she was angry because she had worked hard on the business.
“I’m mad because I busted my ass at something, and you think you’re going to run it into the ground,” Goldman said in the video.
Smit pushed back during the exchange and questioned why the review had made her so angry.
“Obviously, you have some mental issues that would cause you to get mad that I left a review on your restaurant,” Smit said.
The argument continued as Goldman accused him of crossing a line.
“Three times, okay? It was a b*tch move,” Goldman said, according to the video shared in the report.
Smit responded, “I can do whatever I want.”
Goldman replied, “You shouldn’t though. It would be in your best interest not to. Do you understand?”
When Smit asked, “What are you going to do about it?” Goldman answered, “You’ll find out soon enough.”
That exchange is the kind of thing that can take an already ugly argument and make it sound more serious. Words said in anger may not always mean what they seem to mean, but when they are recorded, they can become evidence, not just emotion.
Husband Arrives As Tensions Rise
Samples reported that the cell phone video ran about 15 minutes, and toward the end of it, Goldman’s husband, Ryan Oliver Goldman, arrived at the scene.
The video showed Malary Goldman inching closer to Smit, according to the report.
Smit later told WEAR News that the confrontation became physical.
“She assaulted me, touched my torso three times,” Smit said.
He also claimed Goldman knocked the phone out of his hand, damaged it, stomped on it, and kicked it under his car.
“She knocked the phone out of my hand and pretty much destroyed the back of it,” Smit told Samples. “She stomped on it, kicked it under my car.”
The report did not include a comment from Goldman responding to those claims, since WEAR said she declined to speak with the station.
This is where a customer complaint turned into something much more costly than a one-star review. A business owner can respond online, apologize, explain, ignore it, or ask for a second chance. But once an argument moves into threats, physical contact, or damaged property, the story is no longer about ice cream.
Arrests Follow The Confrontation
Samples reported that Malary White Goldman was arrested Thursday on charges of harassment and criminal mischief.
Ryan Oliver Goldman was also arrested for harassment, according to the WEAR report.
Both have since been released from jail.
The arrests do not mean the case is over, and the court process will still have to play out. But the fact that police filed charges shows how quickly a dispute over an online opinion can grow into a legal problem.
Smit told Samples he plans to keep reviewing restaurants in the future. For now, he said he is searching for a lawyer and may pursue a civil case.
The larger lesson is not that every negative review is fair or that every customer is right. Plenty of reviews are petty, exaggerated, or written in anger. But business owners who engage them badly can make the damage much worse than the review itself.
When Criticism Becomes A Business Test
The Local Scoop dispute shows the strange power online reviews now hold over small businesses.
For customers, a review may be a quick way to vent or warn others. For owners, it can feel like a public wound, especially if they believe the review is unfair or harmful to a business they built with their own money and time.
That pressure is real, but it does not excuse a confrontation.
Samples framed the story as “constructive criticism” gone wrong, and that phrase fits because this case seems to have left everyone worse off. Smit said he only wrote about a bad experience. Goldman said in the video that she felt he was trying to run her business into the ground. Then the argument ended with arrests, charges, and the shop’s name attached to a news story much bigger than the original review.
In a small town, reputation matters. But so does how people respond when that reputation gets challenged.
The more interesting part is that the original review may have faded like many online complaints do. Instead, the response to it became the story.
For Smit, the confrontation confirmed that he was not done speaking publicly about what happened. For Goldman and her husband, the situation moved from a business dispute into the criminal justice system.
And for anyone running a small business, the warning is simple: one bad review can hurt, but chasing the reviewer can do far more damage.
A former park ranger and wildlife conservationist, Lisa’s passion for survival started with her deep connection to nature. Raised on a small farm in northern Wisconsin, she learned how to grow her own food, raise livestock, and live off the land. Lisa is our dedicated Second Amendment news writer and also focuses on homesteading, natural remedies, and survival strategies. Lisa aims to help others live more sustainably and prepare for the unexpected.
