News reports of the recent sale are widespread, but none that I've seen mentions that this is at least the _second_ sale of the Peet's "brand." Mr Peet himself sold the business in the 1970s. The expansion from a single shop to a chain began some years later.

I grew up with the original Peet's, which for a good half of its history was one shop. Peet's Coffee, Tea, and Spices opened in my neighborhood Berkeley in the 1960s, prefiguring the later food shops (Cheese Board, Pig by the Tail Charcuterie, etc.) and eventually restaurants too (Chez Panisse, 1971, then others) that gave the area around Shattuck and Cedar in Berkeley the eventual nickname "Gourmet Ghetto." As a kid I bought things at Peet's like Tellicherry peppercorns and raw cacao beans to make chocolate from "scratch."

645 Ellis isn't really a Peet's. It's really a Specialty's Bakery that happens to sell Peet's merchandise. No employee there is on the Peet's payroll though.

There is a Peet's just across the street from Mountain View though, over at San Antonio and El Camino, near Chef Chu.