<p>Pizzagirl, here in corner of Seattle I do not see any difference - picture a typical guy or gal who works for Google (and an occasional biotechie or two).</p>
<p>In my corner of Seattle… Please pardon my iPhonese. :)</p>
<p>I understand, bb – my posts sometimes speak iPhonese as well :-)</p>
<p>The image is that those with real knowledge of coffee love Peets. Most of these folks would be hard pressed to drink a Starbucks brew if it were the only thing for miles. Peets also has far superior baked goods.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, when Starbucks was first getting started, Peets provided them with their roasted coffee beans for a couple of years.</p>
<p>Peet’s is Bay Area, Starbucks is LA 
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<p>The guy who started Starbucks was an early Peet’s employee/manager type. So there’s a connection. But this point, both are big national corporations so in that sense there’s not much difference. Both are, I believe, environmentally conscious and treat their employees well.</p>
<p>I don’t have immediate access to Peets so I can’t say that I have an impression. The one closest to me (I live beyond suburbia) is about 20 miles away. I have a friend who grew up in Berkeley and went to UC-Berkeley and thinks Peets is the best coffee ever. It’s on his commute in and out of the city and he’ll stop whenever possible. He also makes treks to buy bags of beans. I’ve been to this same Peets and I thought the coffee was fine–I tend to like strong coffee and this was strong. The place had more of the small, independent coffee shop vibe than Starbucks. I prefer the small, independent coffee houses, just because I like supporting local businesses. I wouldn’t support an operation if the product were inferior, but if it’s good coffee, then I’ll take the independent guy over the corporate guy.</p>