[geeks] Barbeque Geekery

[Dan Sikorski]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>> On May 27, 2008, at 20:55 , Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>
>>> I was pretty sure I heard of Peet's being bought out a couple of 
>>> years back.  I'll freely concede I could be mistaken ...  but then, 
>>> it wouldn't be the first time, as far as the recollections of myself 
>>> and multiple other people are concerned, I've caught the universe in 
>>> a continuity error.
>>
>> The founders of Peet's and Starbucks all know each other, but I 
>> believe they are still separate companies.
>
> Yeah, the story as I heard it is that Starbucks was founded because 
> the founder/owner of Peet's wouldn't sell.
>
>
According to the evil wikipedia, the original owners of Starbucks, Jerry 
Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker were inspired by Alfred Peet to 
start their buisness, and in 1984 bought out Peet's. In 1987, they sold 
Starbucks to Howard Schultz.  At that time, both Starbucks and Peet's 
focused on selling coffee beans to the public.  Howard Schultz turned 
Starbucks into the coffee bar/service focused business that it is today, 
and Peet's has remained focused on the coffee itself. 

So, for a few years Peet's and Starbucks had the same ownership (this 
was news to me), but based on that information it does not sound like 
Starbucks owned Peet's. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peet's_Coffee_&_Tea

    -Dan Sikorski