129 Years of Family Serving Family: Brooke Lampe, HQ

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

Who she is: Brooke Lampe, buyer – newborn, infant & toddler boys apparel

Years at the Exchange: 3

Family connections: Brooke’s mother Linda worked for the Exchange for nearly 40 years and retired as a divisional merchandise manager.

“It’s funny how it all turned out because I grew up going to all the bring-your-kids-to-work days, running around the hallways at HQ,” she said. “A lot of the ladies that are still here saw me grow up and I got to know a lot of them.”

What brought her to the Exchange: “After college, I had a lot of connections still at the Exchange who I met through my mom and were still in touch with,” she said. “I talked with some of the retirees and asked if they knew of any open positions.

“Sylvia Smitherman (divisional merchandise manager) hired me, and she was hired by my mom, so it was a full circle moment.”

MD experience: “I studied broadcast journalism in college and originally wanted to be a sideline reporter, but it was hard to build a portfolio in college while also playing soccer,” she said. “I had also worked at different fashion and retail jobs around DFW, so I knew I had an interest and a bit of experience on the merchandising side, and this first position with the Exchange was a perfect fit.

“The people I work with in childrenswear are great, too. It really is a team.”

Favorite part of the job: “You learn a ton in the Merchandising directorate,” she said. “You get to have your hands in a lot of things, from marketing, the buying side, e-Comm and so on.

“We get to see our work in person in the stores—it’s cool to see it all transpire from working with the vendor, setting everything up and then seeing the product hit the floors.”

Family Serving Family: “Growing up, it was always a fun time coming to work with my mom,” she said. “I definitely didn’t think I would end up working for the Exchange, but I’m sure happy I did.

“I still run into a lot of people at work that ask me, ‘Is your mom Linda Lampe?’ and they tell me how great she was and how much they loved her—it’s great hearing the impact my mom made on people at the Exchange.”