Plans of three to five years are more the norm for businesses the size of Zingerman’s, he said. “The biggest criticism levied against this would be that we’re not smart enough to project that far into the future,” Mr. Anderson said. “But to criticize what they’ve done would be foolish, because they’ve been so successful.”

Image Zingermans, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., also does business by mail. Credit... Tom Pidgeon for The New York Times

The deli alone has earned Zingerman’s an exalted status among food lovers, said Michael Ruhlman, the author of a number of books on the food business.

“Places like Zingerman’s are important for two reasons: they become arbiters of taste in America’s booming artisanal food industry simply by what they choose to put in their stores; and second, they are fundamental middlemen between the artisan producer and the consumer,” Mr. Ruhlman said. “There’s not a lot the consumer can do, really, to get Iberian ham, but Ari can.”

Both Mr. Saginaw and Mr. Weinzweig thought Zingerman’s could be more than just a corner store, however. When they brainstormed back in the early 1990s, they thought Zingerman’s could handle as many as 15 different businesses, generating $20 million a year in sales, with the deli at the heart of the enterprise.

They were off-base on several counts. Zingerman’s revenue swelled 50 percent greater than that, to an estimated $30 million this year, with eight separate operations, including a bakery, restaurant, coffee-roasting company and catering business, as well as a training business meant to share Zingerman’s people-friendly management approach.

And though 2009 is still 19 months off, Mr. Saginaw and Mr. Weinzweig are brainstorming again on a vision for the year 2020, which they have begun sharing with their fellow managers, employees and even, via a newsletter, customers.

By then, Mr. Saginaw wants to expand the operations on the corner of East Kingsley and Detroit Streets, home to the original deli, its outdoor seating and a coffeehouse called Zingerman’s Next Door. There could be as many as 18 businesses: the company is weighing ventures like a microbrewery, a small hotel, fish and meat-smoking business and a publishing house.