She’s the brains behind SEPTA’s brilliant merchandise

Meet Al’Lee Floyd, manager of the SEPTA Store and experiential design, who has turned the public transit agency’s merchandise in to must-have items and helped the store reach its most profitable year ever.

Al’Lee Floyd was on the phone with one of her vendors for the SEPTA Store earlier this year, trying to come up with a new piece of Regional Rail merchandise that would track with transit enthusiasts.

The two settled on an image of the Silverliner IV, the railcar that debuted in the mid-’70s and is still used today, but when they couldn’t think of a catchy new phrase to go with it they moved on to chatting about their lives and kids.

“We’re talking and I said, ‘I’m not old, you know, Tom,’ and he said, ‘Al’Lee, I’m classic,’” Floyd recalled.

And that’s how one of SEPTA’s most popular pieces of merchandise this year — a T-shirt featuring an illustration of the Silverliner IV with the words “I’m not old I’m classic” — came to be. It was released at the end of May and is nearly sold out. Another shipment is expected in a few weeks, said Floyd, who is manager of the SEPTA Store and manager of experiential design, a role in which she oversees Mural Arts Philadelphia projects on SEPTA properties.

Brainstorming with vendors is just one of the many ways Floyd keeps the shelves of the SEPTA Store and its online site stocked with products that are nostalgic, witty, and responsive (like the new PCC Trolley T-shirt that says “It’s Electric.” That too is nearly sold out). She also gets ideas from her staff, local artists she works with, other transit agencies, and SEPTA customers.

Since taking over the SEPTA Store at the agency’s headquarters on Market Street near 12th in Center City in 2021, Floyd has redesigned the layout to be bright and airy, reimagined the customer base to include transit enthusiasts, and reinvigorated the store’s website, which had faded into digital oblivion.

As a result, in 2023 the SEPTA Store had its most profitable year on the record books, with more than $412,000 in sales, according to Lex Powers, SEPTA’s director of service information design.

“There’s so much iconic design in SEPTA’s history and there are so many different things that you can do with it. Al’Lee has such a good eye for what people are going to like and what works,” Powers said. “I think that she’s really got her finger on the pulse in that way and she’s really dedicated to creating something that is responding to what people want.”

For Floyd — a mother of three whose husband, daughter, and brother also work for SEPTA — inspiring pride and loyalty in the transit agency through its merchandise is second nature because “SEPTA is family.”

“There’s almost 10,000 employees but each one of us, we look out for one another,” she said. “That’s not something you find everywhere, and for me, it’s something that you pride yourself on.”

Growing up in West Philly, Floyd often took the 52 bus or the El to and from her grandmother’s house at 52nd and Market Streets.

During her high school years, Floyd’s family moved to Conshohocken, where she graduated from Plymouth Whitemarsh High. After school she became a medical assistant and then entered the welfare-to-work social services field before joining SEPTA in 2017. She was inspired to do so by her husband, a bus instructor at the agency.

Floyd started part-time as a traffic checker, “just riding the lines” to provide a passenger count.

“That was great because I got to ride, I got to see the city, and I got to see our customers,” she said. “More than anything, you learn the lines, and that’s important. Very important.”

In 2018, she joined SEPTA full-time as a testing coordinator, administering testing services for skilled trades and operations positions. The following year she became the customer experience manager, a position in which she worked at SEPTA’s Travel Center at the University of Pennsylvania and with Mural Arts Philadelphia projects along SEPTA’s corridors.

“Having that social services background just played into the customer experience. You have to know what the customer wants and what they’re looking for,” Floyd said.

When SEPTA decided to reopen and reimagine its store in September 2021, following an extended hiatus after the COVID-19 pandemic, Floyd — who has helped friends with event planning and has a keen eye for interior decorating — was tapped to be its leader.

“I definitely have that creativity in the brain,” she said.

Opened in 1997, the SEPTA Store was historically more internally-facing. While SEPTA fans and tourists were able to shop there, it mainly served employees who needed a work shirt, lanyard, or the occasional birthday card.

As SEPTA was rethinking its merchandise and its customer base after the pandemic, the store was moved from the finance department into communications.

“It’s a different kind of angle,” Powers said. “It’s now a lot about community connections and branding and trying to drum up excitement about SEPTA and Philly rather than simply to make money.”

The typical customers range from kids having SEPTA-themed birthday parties to senior citizens who just love riding the rails. Floyd estimates that about 60% of the store’s customers are SEPTA fans, with the rest being employees.

“We have a gentleman who is truly our enthusiast. He is SEPTA down. If you saw him, you would probably think he was an employee,” Floyd said. “He’s got all the stuff — the hats, the jackets, he loves his SEPTA merch and he loves his SEPTA vehicles.”

While the brick-and-mortar store still accounts for more revenue, Floyd said online sales are very consistent. On Cyber Monday last year, the website sold out of branded pint glasses after a social media post about the glasses from Center City paralegal Chris Olley went viral.

“That was a great feeling … and it was a trickle-down effect,” Floyd said. “It went from the glasses to our sweatpants. Our sweatpants sold out four or five times. So we definitely had a great run for the holiday.”

The SEPTA Store will hold a 20% off July 4th holiday sale and Floyd offered an additional insider tip for getting discounts at the brick-and-mortar store — just flash your SEPTA key card for a 10% discount.