129 Years of Family Serving Family: Jennifer Price, HQ
One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 129 years of family serving family.
Who she is: Jennifer Price, Enterprise Architecture Manager, Information Technology, Exchange HQ
Years with the Exchange: 27 years.
Military and Exchange connections: Price is an Air Force brat—her father served 20 years, retiring as a master sergeant—and an Exchange brat. Her mom, Deborah Mori, worked for the Exchange for nearly 30 years, and her stepdad, Glenn, retired from the Exchange in 2018. They both worked in IT, as well. “We’re an all-IT family,” Price said.
What she did at first: Price started at the Exchange Burger King at Fairchild Air Force Base. “I was a high school kid and needed a job. I was on base every day as it was, waiting for my mom to get off work, so I got a job.”
Change of plans: “Staying at the Exchange was not my initial long-term goal. I planned to go to college and law school,” Price said. The day after Price’s high school graduation, Mori PCS’d to Exchange headquarters in Dallas. “I was going to stay and do college, but I missed my mom, so I went to Texas with her.” Price was hired in the catalog department, where she worked for a couple of years.
When Deborah PCS’d to Hill Air Force Base in Utah, Price went with her, working as a warehouse receiver and an operations manager. In 2004, Price came to HQ IT, where she’s been ever since.
Deploying with the Exchange: While at Hill AFB, Price deployed to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait for about nine months. “You see the warmth and love all our stores give Soldiers, but it’s different seeing it while deployed. It really gave me a renewed feeling of why we do what we do,” Price said. “You get to see Soldiers’ faces when they come into the store after being out in the field for weeks at a time.”
There was one Soldier in particular Price remembers from her time deployed. “He actually got down and kissed the floor when he walked into the PX. He kept repeating, ‘You don’t even know. You don’t even know how much this means.’ I told him, ‘That’s why we’re here. Because you deserve this.’”
While deployed, Price would call her mom almost every day. “I’d tell her, ‘You should deploy. I think you’d really enjoy it.’” Mori did end up deploying, working with Price for about a month before moving to Iraq. “It was really cool. The Hill AFB newspaper even wrote a story about us.” (See that story here.)
Price was right that her mother would enjoy deployment, “She loved it so much that she stayed on deployment for about seven years.”
Family Serving Family: “It means being there. Providing that day-to-day support. Not just in-stores, but the back-end support. Being able to see the smile on people’s faces when we’ve done something that has touched them.”
Leaning on her Exchange family: When Mori passed away in 2013, Price’s teammates were there for her. “The Exchange is like a family. They all rallied around me and supported me,” Price said. “I try to take care of those on my teams the way I was taken care of.”
