Much has been written of Zingerman's - both locally and nationally. But few have bothered to ask why co-founder Ari Weinzweig chose and continues to choose Ann Arbor as the business's home. Until now.
Excerpt:
"Despite all this fame, you’ve had tussles with the city about expanding the deli.
[Laughs] The town is very engaged, with highly educated and opinionated people. They’re good to sell specialty foods to, and it also means they have opinions about the way things should work. That’s the way it is.
We’ve tried a number of times, and this last time [partners Paul Saginaw and Grace Singleton] had enough fortitude for four years of getting permission. The truth is, I’d say most businesses would have taken the money from Saline (a nearby town) or a mall or a developer and gone there and said, ‘forget it.’
I like the community and I don’t like the idea of not being able to know the people I work with and sell to."
Read the rest
here.