Peet’s Coffee to Close Several Locations in California As Workers Raise Concerns

Peet’s Coffee, the specialty coffee roaster and retailer, will be closing some of its locations in California, including two in Southern California. 

Calling the closures a “difficult decision,” a Peet’s spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times in an email that the closures “reflect a broader effort to align our business with long-term growth priorities and current market conditions.” 

Many Peet’s Coffee locations in the San Francisco Bay Area are headed for closure, according to the news report. 

The closures come after Keurig Dr Pepper announced it will buy JDE Peet’s, the parent company of Peet’s Coffee, in an all-cash deal of $18 billion, according to AP News. 

After the acquisition closes, Keurig Dr Pepper said it would create two separate, independent, U.S.-listed companies: Beverage Co. and Global Coffee Co. 

Peet’s, along with Keurig, Jacobs, and L’OR, will constitute the Global Coffee Co., according to the statement. The entity’s global headquarters will be located in Burlington, Massachusetts, while its international headquarters will be in Amsterdam. 

Although the Peet spokesperson did not specify how many stores will be closing, unionized workers said in a social media post that Peet’s Coffee will close 27 of its 283 locations after the Keurig Dr Pepper deal. 

Peet had announced that their Telegraph & Dwight location would close by the end of January, according to the Instagram post. 

Accusing the Peet’s management of bypassing the union, the workers wrote that the coffee chain failed to honor their legal obligation to bargain over the impacts of closure, and directly informed workers of severance packages without any input from the union. 

In an Instagram post on January 30, 2026, the Peet’s labor union said the workers at the closing Telegraph & Dwight location were yet to reach an agreement with the management over the impacts of the closure. 

“Peet’s Coffee is attempting to cancel our scheduled bargaining session today (1/30) with short notice. We ask that you call Peet’s and demand that they meet with the union!” the post added. 

Union members of some of the closing locations are demanding larger severance packages and transfers to Peet’s locations that have vacancies, according to a news report by KTLA5. Citing a union spokesperson, the news report said nearly 400 employees are expected to be affected by the closures.

In July 2025, JDE Peet said in a statement that the company had posted a strong performance over the past six months amid a “challenging environment that continues to be characterized by persistently high green coffee prices.” 

Peet’s Coffee was founded by Alfred Peet, a Dutch immigrant and a German labor-camp survivor who hailed from a family which ran a coffee-roasting business, according to Los Angeles Times. 

Peet’s Coffee opened its first location in Berkeley in 1966, inspiring the founders of Starbucks, who opened the first Starbucks location in Seattle some years later.