Cherry Grove Cookie Business Owner Disagrees with City on Home Sales Rules
A Cherry Grove cookie business owner is fighting to keep his mobile cookie cart running after it was shut down by the city over an anonymous complaint he claims is false.
By Katherine Schreiner
Published: Sep. 14, 2026 at 4:16 PM GMT+2 | Updated: Sep. 14, 2026 at 8:31 PM GMT+2
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NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Jon Allen, owner of the Cherry Grove Cookie Company, says he should be able to sell cookies from his home. The city of North Myrtle Beach disagrees.
The business has been selling cookies in Cherry Grove for seven months, according to Allen. They added their sales cart at the end of July.
Allen claims an anonymous complaint led to the shutdown, but he denies the accusation.
In a statement, North Myrtle Beach said the complaint was about cookies being sold at the house, not at the beach.
Allen stated that a city representative visited while he and his team were preparing the cart in the afternoon. The man told him someone had called claiming the business was selling cookies at beach access points.
“We tried to tell them, ‘Hey, we’ve never, we’ve never done that,’” Allen said.
He described the representative as “very kind” and “very nice” and explained that the city responds to complaints.
While the business can continue operating and delivering cookies, under current rules, customers cannot pick up cookies from the cart and exchange money there.
The city stated that when Cherry Grove Cookie Company applied for its home occupation business license, their business activity was described as “Home Bakery Making Cookies / Not Selling From Home.”
They also noted that Allen signed a form acknowledging that no stock-in-trade may be kept or commodities sold at the residence and that there should be no exterior indication of a business operating from the property.
A dispute exists over which set of rules applies. Allen claims the cart is allowed under state law, but North Myrtle Beach’s mobile food unit ordinance prohibits it. The city argues that Tuesday’s issue involved the home occupation license, not the Mobile Food Services Ordinance.