Feb 20, 2015

UMSL PMBA Alumnus Opens Fair Trade ShopBy Jen HattonBlogs.Umsl.Edu

St. Louis, MO – Peru native Julio Zegarra-Ballon is no stranger to retail. Since moving to the United States with his wife in 1990, he’s worked in that field. Climbing the corporate ladder at Macy’s and then Brown Shoe Company was a natural progression for him. But opening his own store didn’t seem to be in the cards until what Zegarra-Ballon refers to as “the perfect storm” occurred.

“I started a career in retail, not knowing that would be my future career,” said Zegarra-Ballon, who earned a professional master’s degree in business administration in 2013 from the University of Missouri–St. Louis. “But one thing led to another, and I got a promotion and another one six months after that. I stayed, thinking I would get a real job later. But I was lucky enough that this was my real job and retail is what I was meant to do.”

In the fall of 2014, while still fully employed as a merchandise planning specialist for Famous Footwear, a division of Brown Shoe Company, he opened Zee Bee Market at 3211 South Grand Blvd. in St. Louis.

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