About

We've been behind your counter.

The Southern Guild wasn't dreamed up in a tech office. It came out of years spent walking into independent c-stores, liquor stores, and corner markets across the Savannah area — and watching great owners lose customers to chains with bigger tools.

The founder

Phin Johnson

FOUNDER & CEO · SAVANNAH, GA

Phin has spent his career in beverage and alcohol distribution sales, building relationships across hundreds of Savannah-area c-stores, liquor stores, and neighborhood markets. Not from a desk — from the floor, the cooler, and the counter.

Week after week, he watched the same story: hardworking owners with loyal neighborhoods and zero tools to keep them. No customer data. No way to reach a regular who stopped coming in. One bad Google review sitting unanswered for a year, quietly costing them customers.

The chains solved this with apps and analytics teams. Nobody solved it for the independents — so The Southern Guild was built to. Software that's simple enough to run itself, and a real visit every month, because that's how business gets done on a route.

What we believe

Show up in person

Trust isn't built in an inbox. Every store gets a monthly visit, every month, forever.

Price in the open

One flat price, published on our website. If you have to ask, it's hiding something.

Independents first

We build for the corner store, the family operation, the owner who knows customers by name.

Earn it monthly

No long contracts. We keep your business the same way you keep your customers — by deserving it.

Why "Guild"?

Independent doesn't have to mean alone.

A guild is what independent craftspeople built when they needed the strength of a network without giving up their independence. That's the long-term vision: member stores that share a standard of quality, a "support local" identity, and — over time — perks and promotions that work across the whole Guild. The chains have scale. The Guild will too.

Savannah first

We're starting where we know every street and every store — coastal Georgia.

The Southeast next

City by city, route by route — the same way trust is actually built.

Beyond loyalty

Websites, local marketing, and more growth services for member stores are on the horizon.

Let's walk your store together.

The first visit is free, and it'll change how you see your own store.