Ralphs Grocery Company Store 680

This regards the pharmacy only. For years Ralph’s has efficiently filled my prescriptions at competitive prices, until this week. Could have been a fluke in the system or else the employee who I spoke to when placing the RX gave me the price I paid. A few days ago I called specifically asking the price and when I went to pick it up the price had gone up about $ 50. The pharmacist said something to the effect of «it’s like the price of gas, which changes daily. That it could have been a price increase in the last few days. They wouldn’t honor the price told over the phone. Make sure you have clarity about the price and how it might change from the time you’re given a quotation and when you pick it up a few days later.

What is going on with the maintenance of this store? So Sad! I thought this was the Jewel of grocery shopping as far as size and quality but it’s gone down hill this last year or so… YUCK! The Staff are helpful and nice but you can tell they are too busy — the wait time at the Deli is awful and now the selection is so limited and I’m beginning to worry about the cleanliness. Please Upgrade what is there!
A long time local shopper!

This Ralphs is so gross on the outside. Trash everywhere. The elevators are like 100 years old of disgusting filthy dirty nasty crap all over and stinks like urine. WHY DOES SB HAVE SUCH DISGUSTING GROCERY STORES WHERE WE BUY OUR FOOD !!! All the grocery stores are overpriced and dirty. I am from southern Fl and we have beautiful clean stores. Publixis an amazing clean store. SB needs clean stores and low prices. Why does SB have the most disgusting stores and such a wealthy place to live ?? I dont get it. I give Ralphs and all grocery stores a 0 Star !!!

Ack! I know. Why keep coming back?! Convenience.
Today the change came out of the dispenser short. Cashier asks, «oh, do you want that?»
Yes, please.
Just another way for them to make a buck on you.

Way expensive. Unfortunately it’s one of the only grocery stores downtown, so I have to drive up to Vons or Trader Joes because it’s cheaper there even with having to spend gas to get there. The Ralph’s card doesn’t even make a difference in pricing compares to Vons.

i use this store because i used it in my old hometown, and like their prices and layout. here, it’s mostly convenience, because there is a dearth of grocery stores in santa barbara. this store has central location, underground parking, a new starbucks… but no checkers. three days ago, at 11 am., one on regular lane, one on express, 16 people with full carts with children and elderly… dude, i put my iPod on and answered texts for 20 minutes! and this is normal? come on ralph’s, use the trader joe’s paradigm. more than 3 in line, open a lane. pay out some extra for employees to do the job. ps and no more stocking in the middle of the day. pay overtime, or a night shift to do it. do it right! omg! don’t save money by showing contempt for your customers! ever. you need to be schooled.

I understand this isn’t Ralph’s fault because Haggen’s totally screwed SB!!! But Ralphs is aways crazy busy because it is the only main grocery store downtown. They need more check outs or something to make the lines quicker. So many times, all hours of the day the lines are 5+ people long. and the express check out lines are 10+ people. It is crazy and it reminds me of a third world country. Santa Barbara needs to figure out how to bring back regular grocery stores.

2÷12÷16 was a horrible day to shop at this Ralph’s…there was one checker at the register and 20 people in line to check out. The express lines were full as was the self checkout. It was 11:30 when I got there and 12:15 when I was checked out. People were leaving full carts if groceries and just walked out. The manager was informed by a customer to open more check stands but he said they were doing the best they could. Their best wasn’t even near being good enough… while there are few grocery stores available at this time due to awful Haggen’s you would think more checkers would be on hand to accommodate customers. Shame on Ralph’s! I will never go back!

At 6:30pm on a Wednesday, there should be more than 4 checkstands open. Why are three of those 4 checkstands express lanes?!? With all of those grocery stores closing in SB, you’d think Ralph’s on Chapala would step up their game to get all of that business. Apparently not. I even asked for more checkstands to be opened and was told that two people were on their lunch break. Time for a new manager!!!

This five-​star rating is really only for Terry behind the deli counter. First of all, it’s obvious he takes pride in the chicken he fries. It’s simply amazing. And I would say it’s the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. We watched him prepare it and it was obvious that he knew what he was doing. What also struck us was how dedicated he was to his job. Of the three people behind the counter, he’s the only one who cared about taking care of the customers. The two women behind the counter could care less if they were there or even wearing shoes. In the time one of them helped a customer, Terry had helped three customers. The man simply rocked the job. Terry, if you had a tip jar, there’d be a twenty in there just for you. Thank you for being you.

The only thing this store is consistent on is horrible customer service. Every. Single. Time. Three times in a row they forgot to put some thing in my bags, making me have to come back for it. When asking a cashier for a roll of quarters, the reply is: «Sorry, I don’t have any». I restrain the urge to tell the cashier to get up off her lazy ass and call the manager to bring some then. Waiting in line at the front desk to just have the manager walk away from the front desk (her name was Lilliana) and never return. When asked why she walked away, she just says she «didn’t see me». Or the line behind me, as well, apparently. I have overheard employees in the upper De La Vina Ralphs talk about how miserable they are at this location — and it shows. Listed here are only a few examples of the legacy of crappy service this store tries so hard to achieve — and succeeds.

Even though the store is good and I love to shop there. The pharmacy is horrible. Maybe because of the location the pharmacist is rude and useless. She should not work with customers. I’ve tried giving her a second chance. She was uncaring and ill informed. Save your time and think the pharmacy will be convenient, unless you are an old regular customer, maybe then you’ll be helped.

Came in to pick up one item. Asked three different people so far where to find it. None of them knew offhand. None of them made any attempt to find out. Each of them just fobbed me off on someone else. (It’s easier to just guess about who might possibly know what you don’t know than to stop doing what you’re doing and find out who knows what you don’t know. That would, you know, be good customer service. Which is totally, like, hard.) The guy in produce sent me to the pharmacy, where I waited in line for ten minutes while both pharmacists helped an ancient woman who was yelling loudly about her vagina and wanting a refill on «the pills that look like M&M’s.» The pharmacist who finally got to me didn’t know but sent me to the customer service desk. The customer service desk didn’t know but swore that the lady at checkstand 4 will. Every time I’ve had to stand in line again and just been sent somewhere else. I’ve written this while standing in line at checkstand four, where the cashier has so far rung up more than $ 500 in groceries while I’ve been writing. Let’s see if she knows or is just going to send me to the fucking meat counter.
Seriously, why don’t they just change their store motto to «because fuck you, that’s why»?
EDIT. Turns out shoelaces are on aisle 6. That only took forty minutes to find out. Special bonus: waiting in a really long line YET AGAIN on that way out at 8:30 at night.

Big Ralphs around the corner from where we stayed.
The workers at the deli were terrible! I asked for the 8 piece fried chicken deal and she said they do not have that deal anymore. How can you not have it anymore when you display the damn deal at your register!!!

I really love this Ralph’s…I like the fountain… albeit no water at the moment. I adore the self check out, because I feel like I can get out faster if I do it myself… and I’ve always enjoyed SB’s Christmas tree on the corner… it’s such a huge beacon of light & love year round. Glad there is under ground parking… little sad about all the homeless folks outside… sometimes a little to scary to still eat lunch, but I do attempt it from time to time!

This Ralph’s is my favorite grocery store in the area. I live closer to a couple different ones, including Albertsons, but drive the extra few miles to this one because it is a lot more enjoyable of an experience. The shelves are always well stocked, the employees are always helpful and make conversation during check out and I’ve never had to wait in line more than a couple minutes to check out
The only thing I don’t love is that the produce section usually isn’t very well stocked, but still a heck of a lot better than most grocery stores

In town for a birthday party and needed some flowers for a table arrangement. After failing to find the right kind of flowers from the farmers market, Riley’s flowers, and another florist, was surprised to find the flowers that I was looking for at Ralph’s! Stefani was such great help, she even went to the back store room to pull out boxes of flowers that were delivered from that morning. Truly great service!

I went to Ralph’s on a Saturday night at 9pm. I’m from NY and I noticed a lot of places in SB close much earlier so I checked the sign and saw it was open til 2am. I commenced my shopping and was ready to check out. When I got to the front of the store, I noticed a single register open and a line wrapping across 4 aisles. Even though I always find the self check out to be more of a headache than its worth, I didn’t feel like waiting on a line of 30 on my Saturday night. During the check out process, I scanned my item and it told me to place it on the bagging area. So I did. Then it told me to remove it, so I did. Then it told me to place it in the bagging area. This nonsense went on 5 – 10 times over all while the girl overseeing that area just watched and never helped. Mid way through my scanning process, they decided that 9:45pm was a perfect time to turn all the lights off in the front of the store. Nothing like making people feel like they are unwanted and pressuring them to hurry and leave, even though it was open for another 4+ hours. Ugh
The most unbelieveable part of the whole experience is when I scanned an item from the frozen food section. The machine told me there was no price in the system for that item and to notify an associate for help. The same worthless girl came over and said «Oh, theres no price for this.»
Me: «I see that. Can you help me?»
Girl:” Well do you know how much it is?“
Me: «No»
Girl:“Ohhh, do you wanna go take another?“
Me: «Ummm, won’t the same thing happen? It says there is no price for it.» Girl:“Ohhh yeahhh sorry.“
Me: «Soooo?»
Girl: «Mm yeahhh sorry»
Me: «So you’re telling me I can’t purchase this item??!»
Girl: «Mmm yeahhh sorry»
Me: «So its an item, for sale, in a food store… and I can’t buy it? Wow.»
Girl:” Sorryyyyy“
What the???

As another Unilocaler calls this Fancy Ralph’s I’ve adopted this name for this location. The overflow parking is decent, reminds me of the Paseo Nuevo lot under Macy’s without the 75 minute kiosk.
Busy and understaffed as usual, our checker Abraham was his friendly self in a sea of unhappy employees.
It’s always a jolt to walk past a security guard. The last grocery store I remember seeing this was Winn Dixie in Saint Pete, FL 30 years ago. After being thrown past this anti Santa Barbara relic the store feels as if it goes on for miles.
The produce selection is large and fresh. They have a decent selection of alcohol although you need to use the regular checkout if it is in your cart. If a sign states this neither my boyfriend nor I noticed it. If the employee hadn’t seen the beer among all our food items it would have been a mess.

Adults, do you still have those places that cause you to go into a conniption fit? Do you glue your arse to the car seat, cross your arms, pout, and tell your partner they can go inside but that you are NOT getting out of the car?
Yeah… that’s how this Ralph’s makes me feel.
The Santa Barbara Ralph’s experience involves parking in spaces so tight you are almost guaranteed a new ding on your car, then you get to take one of the very shoddy un-​maintained elevators (one of which just recently got stuck with people in it), up to the actual store.
The service here is so fantastic you’ll want to make sure you use self-​checkout. I say this because the computerized voice that tells you over and over again to put your item in the bagging area has more personality and service than any of the human cashiers.
They have a security officer inside, policing the paying customers, but he does nothing about all of the transients that loiter at the tables outside and harass people for money as they walk in and out of the store.
Fun.