129 Years of Family Serving Family: Lisa Olivares, HQ

One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 129 years of family serving family

Who she is: Lisa Olivares, senior buyer in Consumables, Retail Food

Years at the Exchange: Olivares will celebrate 36 years with the Exchange at the end of March.

Military connections: Her father served in the Navy for six years before she was born.

Memories of Exchange support: Olivares’ mother, Kay Speck, worked at the Exchange for 18 years, starting when Olivares was in the third grade.

“I was never allowed to have sugar, right? And [my mother] went to work for our Quality Assurance division. Bubblicious was coming out with bubble gum to the market, and they sent some gum to the QA department. She had some in her purse, and I found it. That was my first sampling of candy.

“I got to get a little sugar fix as a kid; that wasn’t allowed. She couldn’t turn me down at that point. I thought she had the coolest job because she got to sample tasty treats.”

What brought her to the Exchange: Olivares began her career with the Exchange the summer before her senior year in high school at her mother’s encouragement. She was a cashier and assisted in preparing the headquarters Express for its grand reopening in 1988. The store was converted to an unattended retail unit last year but was in operation for 36 years.

“I loved working my first job in the store, because you could see how helping [the customers] impacted them and it brings me happiness to help others,” she said.

Her Exchange career: After working various roles at the HQ Express, Olivares became a procurement assistant in electronics before making a lateral move to the Systems Support department as a business assistant. She later returned to the Sales Directorate team (now MD) in 2004 as a buyer in stationery before becoming a health and beauty care buyer in 2007.

In November 2023, Olivares was promoted to the senior buyer for the Retail Food team, and she specializes in seasonal items. For example, she will order the edible products for Easter baskets in Exchange stores for the upcoming Easter season.

“It kicks in when you know that you’re providing products for younger people that are right out of the home, 18 years old and trying to find their way. It was just always a sense of pride.”

Memorable moments: “During COVID, I was the healthcare buyer. I was working all day long trying to make sure that I was able to find the personal protection equipment products that our customers needed to protect themselves, without falling victim to all the counterfeit items that we were hearing about,” Olivares said. “I was vetting suppliers left and right. That’s probably the most memorable because it was the most chaotic, but I was happy to be able to provide the protection that our customers needed.”

Family Serving Family: “Family serving family means supporting one another while working as a team with a shared responsibility to provide a purpose, which is taking care of our service members and their families.

“I love being able to support our mission, We Go Where You Go, to bring a little piece of home to our heroes, wherever they may be. That’s my real purpose.”