Is Peet's selling it soul...

brianluxbrianlux Posts: 42,056
edited May 2013 in A Moving Train
... to the environmental devil? I hope not! Otherwise, I'm shopping for another brand that sticks to an environmentally conscious business.

http://alameda.patch.com/groups/busines ... eet-s-deal

Conservationists Smell a Rat in Peet's Deal

News that Peet's Coffee & Tea, whose is here in Alameda, by global investor Joh. A. Benckiser caused barely a stir last week.

Peet's started as a tiny coffee shop in North Berkeley in 1966 — a dark-roasting, small-batching rebel outpost in a corporate coffee world ruled by the likes of Maxwell House and Folgers. The company is still seen as counter-cultural — despite the fact that it went public in 2001 and now boasts 196 cafes in six states and sells its products both in grocery stores and through the mail. But only a few "Peetnicks" — that's Peet's-speak for die-hard fans — complained on the Peet's Facebook page about a foreign conglomerate taking over the Bay Area icon. More expressed relief that Starbuck's — long rumored to be eyeing Peet's for a takeover — isn't the buyer.

All that changed this week, when conservationists around California started saying that if the sale goes through, Peet's will be selling its sustainable soul to an environmental devil.

The problem? JAB is a stakeholder in Reckitt-Benckiser, which manufactures, among dozens of personal care and household products, the rat poison d-Con. And d-Con is made from brodifacoum, one of four rodenticides the EPA banned in 2008, due to the "unreasonable adverse effects" they have on children, pets, and wildlife.

Known as "non-specific targets," that wildlife includes great horned owls, barn owls, Eastern screech owls, golden eagles, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, Cooper's hawks, foxes, mountain lions, bobcats and fishers, who die from "secondary poisoning" when they eat poisoned rats and mice.
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













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Comments

  • mca47mca47 Posts: 13,291
    I love Peet's.
    By far my favorite "commercially available" coffee.
    This is sad news.
    :(
  • SD48277SD48277 Posts: 12,243
    Dammit! I love Peet's. I went to the original Peet's in Berkeley last summer. I'm surprised, given the history of Berkeley residents, that this is even a possibility.
    ELITIST FUK
  • brianluxbrianlux Posts: 42,056
    Yeah, sorry for the bad news. I think this kind of thing needs to be put out there... but there's too much bad news here lately so I fell like shit for posting it.
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













  • BentleyspopBentleyspop Posts: 10,770
    Honestly I don't go to Peets.
    We have an overwhelming amount of coffee shops in Boulder. Some corporate some locallly owned.
    There is one Peets but it is in a crowded, busy, outdoor shopping area and there are literally a dozen other coffee shops within a 2 block radius of where the local Peets is.
    I try my best to go to the locally owned and operated shops before I go to the big multi-state corporate shops.
    So I guess one less to worry about.
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