Facebook wars and broken contracts: Myrtle Beach ice cream shop owner sues franchisee
The owners of Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream, a beloved staple of the Grand Strand’s sweet treat scene, are at war with their only franchisee, accusing her of violating the franchise contract she signed three years ago.
Steve and Ann Fairchild, owners of Painter’s for 22 years, sued franchisee Haley King last month. King bought the Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream location next door to Garden City Pier in 2019, according to the lawsuit and contracts viewed by The Sun News. It is just one of two locations for Painter’s, both of which opened in the late 1900s, long before the Fairchilds bought them. The other location is on Highway 17 Business, a few miles away.
The Fairchilds’ main accusations against King are that she is holding their original website and social media accounts hostage and that her posts on them make it look like the Highway 17 location is closed. They also said she is breaking the franchise contract by deciding last fall to start making her own competing ice cream for sale and blocking them from entering the Garden City Pier property, according to the lawsuit.
The first half of her their claims are at least somewhat documented. There’s little to no mention on the website or the social media accounts that the other location even exists.
There’s just one problem with the second half of their claims. The Garden City Pier Painter’s was torn down recently to be turned into a parking lot. There’s no Painter’s location for King to sell competing ice cream in — no ice cream shop for her to stop the Fairchilds from entering. As of Monday, the shop was a crumbling pile of concrete and metal.
How did one of the Grand Strand’s most popular brands become so engulfed in turmoil?
Here’s what happened, according to legal filings, emails, contracts and social media accounts viewed by The Sun News.
King was a longtime employee of Painter’s, the lawsuit said. During her time working for the Fairchilds, they said she ran their social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram, and set up a website for them, according to the lawsuit. To do her job, she had passwords giving her access to those accounts, the Fairchilds said.
In 2019, the Fairchilds franchised out the Garden City Pier location of Painter’s to King, according to the lawsuit and the franchise contract. The Fairchilds retained almost full control over what the Painter’s Garden City location did and sold, but the franchise allowed King to set up her own business, the lawsuit said. At the same time, the Fairchilds continued to run the Highway 17 location.
Here’s where the drama begins.
- In December, King removed all information and references to the Highway 17 location from the Painter’s website and social media accounts, including 10 years worth of Instagram posts, according to the lawsuit. She also locked the Fairchilds out of the accounts altogether, the lawsuit said.
- In doing so, she even went as far as to make it appear as though the Garden City location, the one she owned, was the only existing Painter’s location and that the Highway 17 business would not open for the 2022 tourism season, the lawsuit said.
- King told the Fairchilds they were barred from entering the Garden City location at all, despite a stipulation in the franchise contract requiring they be allowed to do so to ensure the business met the Fairchilds’ standards, according to the lawsuit.
- King decided to start making her own ice cream for sale, different from the Painter’s brand, legal filings say. That ice cream would also be sold at Stella’s Ice Cream, located in Murrells Inlet, a competing business she plans to open this spring, according to Stella’s website.
- Stella’s also has a nearly identical website to Painter’s, including some of the same photos the Fairchilds’ claim they own.
All of this happened in violation of the franchise contract signed by the two parties and without the Fairchilds’ approval, the lawsuit said.
The saga has infuriated the Fairchilds and created confusion among their customers, legal filings say. They fear their reputation, built up over decades, is in danger if King isn’t stopped.
On “numerous” occasions, the Fairchilds have been asked if their Murrells Inlet location is even open at all, since it has been all but erased online, according to legal filings, which include emails sent to the Fairchilds by customers and social media comments from customers. On Instagram, for example, there is no mention of the Painter’s Highway 17 location in any of the 98 public posts.
“These questions stem from the fact that Defendants abruptly removed all information regarding Painter’s Highway 17 location from Plaintiff’s Website and Social Media Accounts, where it had always been present before, such that it appears Painter’s Highway 17 location no longer exists,” the lawsuit said.
The “Locations” tab on the Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream website also includes this statement: “We have one location in the heart of Garden City to help satisfy your ice cream needs. Check us out, because what beats ice cream with a view!”
The Fairchilds repeatedly demanded King hand over access to the social media accounts and the website, but King refused, Ann Fairchild said in a written affidavit.
Customer confusion
To deal with their online erasure, the Fairchilds set up new social media accounts. But, the lawsuit said, posts on the original account were “disruptive” and continued to make it look like Highway 17 location was closed.
“On February 21, 2022, when Plaintiff posted on its new Facebook page that Painter’s Highway 17 location was open for business for the 2022 season, the following day Defendant King posted on Plaintiff’s original Facebook page that Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream was still closed for the season,” the lawsuit said.
In an email to Steve Fairchilds, a customer named Matt said, “What happened to the store on 17? It’s not on the website. Is that store closed? Can I still order a birthday cake? The site said you don’t make them at this location anymore? So is there a second location? This is very confusing.”
The subject line was “Hey Steve, I’m confused.”
Another customer, Mike, told Steve Fairchild, “I am a little concerned and totally confused.”
The mixed messages continued a week later.
“On March 1, 2022, when Plaintiff posted on its new Facebook page about Painter’s Highway 17 being open for business, only two minutes later, Defendant King posted on Plaintiff’s original Facebook that Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream was not yet open, and would not be open until April 2022,” the lawsuit said.
According to Facebook screenshots in legal filings, a customer then commented, asking, “So I’m confused. One post says you’re closed in Garden City then another says you’re open in Garden City. Could you clarify?”
At no point did King or the original Facebook page say that the Highway 17 location was not open, but the Fairchilds’ lawsuit claims the timing of the posts and the matching names of the two locations has created a “misleading” environment for customers. The suit also called King’s actions “unfair and deceptive practices.”
A lawyer for the Fairchilds, Ben Baroody, said they do not have anything to say at this time beyond the current legal filings.
The Sun News tried to reach King by calling the phone number listed for the Painter’s Garden City location, but it is no longer in service. A message was left with an employee working for Stella’s Ice Cream who answered the phone Tuesday afternoon, but King has yet to call back. The employee said she hadn’t heard about the lawsuit.
King hired Tom Winslow as her attorney in the case. Winslow said an official legal response to the Fairchild’s lawsuit would be coming in the next couple of weeks. He declined to comment on any specifics of the lawsuit, including the accusations that King is illegitimately holding onto control of the original Painter’s website and social media accounts.
“She purchased the business either her money,” Winslow said. “She is paying all those bills just like anyone would on a regular basis. And unfortunately, it appears that the people that she purchased business from are not happy with her success, and they want the business back.
“She’s just simply trying to make a living and provide joy and ice cream to our customers ... They are trying to stop her from providing that joy and providing that ability to make a living, and it’s just it’s an unfortunate situation.”
Painter’s in Garden City closes
Recently, King’s Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream near Garden City Pier was torn down to become parking for the Kingfisher Inn next door.
The Painter’s Homemade Ice Cream website that the Fairchilds say King controls has this message in large font on the homepage:
“UNFORTUNATELY WE WERE JUST RECENTLY MADE AWARE THAT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN TO OUR BUILDING THIS YEAR. THEY ARE DEMOLISHING IT TO MAKE ROOM FOR PARKING. WE ARE JUST AS HEARTBROKEN AS YOU ARE BUT WE ARE CURRENTLY DISCUSSING RELOCATING. STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE UPDATES!”
Winslow said the building Painter’s was located in had been condemned and was no longer safe for use.
The lack of a location raises questions about whether the Fairchilds still have an argument under several elements of the lawsuit, including King barring them from entering the Garden City location and making her own competing ice cream to sell in Garden City and storing it offsite at Stella’s.
Baroody declined to answer questions regarding those parts of the lawsuit, as well as questions about whether the Fairchilds knew that their Garden City franchise was going to be torn down in advance or if they had any plans to revive the franchise in another location.
The lawsuit was filed March 10, three weeks before Painter’s said on Facebook it would have to leave its current location.
Regardless, in a request for a preliminary injunction against King that has not yet been granted, the Fairchilds argued that King’s actions would cause them “irreparable harm.”
“Plaintiff has and will continue to lose the goodwill and reputation it has built over the past twenty years,” the request said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from Haley King’s attorney, Tom Winslow.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
