Peet's Coffee — Restaurant in Redondo Beach

Here I am at Pete's Coffee at 1418 S. Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach. After years of going to Pete's shops all over both Northern and Southern California, this was a first today. You see, I prefer a strong latte with less milk so I can taste the espresso. As I had routinely done tens, if not over a hundred times before, I asked for my regular large latte in a medium size cup. A large latte contains three shots, a medium two, but adding an extra shot to a medium is another $0.90 making it around $0.50 more expensive than a large.

When the manager heard the request this Saturday afternoon (4/13/19), he marched right over and pounced, putting his foot down. "We're not authorized to do that!", he barked like a decommissioned Drill Sargeant at Cub Scout camp. Having never been met with anything but smiles and a large latte in a medium size cup before, I looked at him quizzically (while the barrista looked down uncomfortably). "We can't do that," he repeating, doubling down, then raising his voice to pronounce to the whole store, "I'll do it just this one time, but not again!".

Now, mind you, I'd never met this millennial in Patton cosplay (requisite beard notwithstanding), nor had I ever been in this particular Pete's. For future reference, here's four things our mogul-in-training might want to consider next time a customer simply asks for a smaller cup:

1} By putting a large latte in a medium cup, Pete's saves on paper cup costs. 2) By using less milk, they save on milk. 3) By charging a customer a fair price (ie, the listed price of a large latte), the difference saved from the inflated cost of an extra shot will go in his tip jar rather than into the company's coffer. 4) By insulting a new customer and embarrassing the server, this manager has no need to warn that his gracious gift of a one time exception to the rule will ever happen again because in his infinite wisdom, he's guaranteed that this customer will never go back to his location, nor to any Pete's franchise stores again if, indeed, there's been a policy change since the days when Pete's Coffee was the most user friendly boutique coffee chain among the many to choose from. It gives new meaning to the expression penny wise,...

I left a great review a while ago but decided to update it. Today 2024/10/22 I went around 3pm as usual to grab my coffee and was refused by this woman with a piercing in the nose. The official reason was that they don't accept scooters inside. Of course this was not the reason since I've never been there a single time in the past without my little e-scooter. The real reason was that I wear T-shirts that say "I love Capitalism". It's never been a problem but this time that woman was alone in the shop so she could do whatever she wants. I used to give 100% tips every time, but from now on I will free-trade these tokens we call money somewhere else. There are dozens of coffee places so no one can afford to handpick customers based on their ideologies. Moral of the story: You can hire 10 great people and then hire just 1 loser and that loser will make you lose faithful customers just like that, and usually when we lose a customer they never come back in...

I Love it, the service is great. The short morning Lady that worked on Saturday May 1st is a power house. My husband likes Nutmeg in his coffee, and the day before she could not find it, but she looked it. We came in the next day on May 1st and she said, she was glad that he came back because she find the Nutmeg. I knew that was a Great worker. It's a great place. All the people are Great, but the Lady was...