This is the downtown Santa Barbara Ralph's, and like everything else in Santa Barbara, the exterior is very pretty. I'm sure the city made Ralph's pay out the nose for the prime location, and you can see some of this reflected in the nice landscaping. How many grocery stores come with their own stone and tile fountains? Inside, the Ralph's is a Ralph's. We went most recently to get children's Tylenol after midnight, always fun, and we were glad they were open and had it in stock. While we were there, my husband reminded me of an earlier visit, over a decade ago, when we were shopping and overheard a child shouting from the next aisle. It was about the most excited I've heard anyone get about anything, a joyful exclamation of "VEGAN CHEESE PIZZA!" I never saw him, but I think of him often. He's probably a full adolescent now, and I hope he still finds such easy pleasure in this beautiful, complicated world and its frozen vegan pizzas. I doubt I've ever been so happy in a Ralph's, but am grateful for this one. Downtown and open late for your basic grocery store needs. read more

Ralph's Deli is probably the worst staffed I've ever seen in a grocery store! We waited 20min for an employee. Once she arrived and was not very fluent in English I asked her in Spanish where she was??? She said she was on her Lunch break! During the busiest time of day ? She said yes, that they need more help! Management if you're reading this get the Deli MORE HELP!! Absolutely ridiculous and uncalled for. read more

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE! Even with the recent renovations, this store still has major problems. It starts with management. The store is usually dirty. The staff is often rude, relatively uninterested, and not helpful. Their baggers rarely want to bag, leaving the checkers frustrated. Yesterday, the store was like a swamp...hot and muggy, little to no air conditioning. All of the ice cream in the middle aisle was melted, but still for sale. Management wasn't aware (someone not checking temperatures?). They also had several other cold cases empty and not working. Their restrooms are always in disrepair. They have staff in their service deli that we can't communicate with because we don't speak spanish. They have constant problems with their elevators from the parking garage. They often have many items out of stock later in the day because they don't restock. I could go on and on. It's really disappointing and sad. This store could be an amazing centerpiece of downtown (it once was), but it's turned into an absolute dump in comparison to the other stores in town. It's been this way for a while. By all appearances, they have a serious management and accountability problem. Does Kroger even care? read more

This place is filthy i wouldn't be surprise if it was infested by more than one type of pest. I don't think they ever clean. EW. would NOT recommend!!!!! read more

Had the most disgusting interaction with another human being of all time, right here in the Hot Bar of neighborhood Ralph's. Old mexican lady serving chicken called me the most racist word of all time, assuming I didn't speak Spanish... And get this, had the audacity to keep repeating herself, still assuming I knew none the wiser, while I was trying to place an order with her. Absolutely horrendous way to speak to a human being, let alone a customer. I'm glad I'm writing this review, because I got to witness all of the other 1-star reviews at this location. Horrible business management and a huge red flag for the Kroger brand. read more

shop here all the time, besides rising grocery prices and less customer care, it's at least convenient. Now they got rid of the paper bags with handles. No handles on the bags? Really? read more

No words... today at 10:10 am went to this store. To shop. Coming up the elevator was a poster. It had a photo of diversity children of all nationalities. Someone drew swastika on the children of colors faces. We were horrified such blatant racism was left up and not immediately removed. Went inside to find manager asked a girl bagging groceries if she knew where manager was she said she had no idea.turned out manager was 5 feet away so I am guessing she told staff not to bother her. When we told her she said "I didn't do it" she didn't give 1 dam. The man standing next to her whoever he was said what do you want her to do about it? What I wanted was for them to take it down. Santa barbara is diverse group of people. The is not what we stand for. Disgusting... I would starve before I shopped here again read more

Deli counter doesn't make sandwiches and it took forever to get someone in the deli to acknowledge so i could simply ask if they make sandwiches. Store was crowded but they do have an ok selection of grab n go lunch items. Still would be nice if their staff had better customer service skills. read more

I was in Santa Barbara and near the transit station and I had fifteen minutes to kill before the restaurant I wanted to go to opened. This Ralph's was huge. Lots of great selection and a nice produce section and the only other one I have been to was on Pacific Beach in San Diego. The San Diego one is nice, but this one was even nicer, if that is possible. I was on the lookout for some powdered Crystal Light for a pitcher back at the place in Carpinteria we were staying at. They had about 6 different kinds. Score! I went with raspberry iced tea. The lemonade is also a winner if you would like to try it. The lines were a little long, but I went through the self check-out. There are a ton of restaurants nearby and the main drag is really close as well. Always nice to get a nice grocery store where you know the real estate is expensive. read more

I had to run into this Ralphs for some quick odds and ends. First, we missed the side street to get into the Ralphs parking lot. The easiest entrance is from Chapala Street. The store itself is plenty big. When I came at 11:42am there was not enough front-end register folks to properly help address the customers. This location is doing what they can to force people into self-checkout, which I like, but even that was overly congested. It took me about 10 minutes to pay for my 3 items, because I was in a hurry, I was a tad frusturated. read more

Auto checkout only seems to work when an employee is standing right next to it which defeats the purpose of the auto checkout... Even then it didn't work properly and I'm still wondering whether it charged me for the $60 I never got. Add to that the fact that there seemed to be an endless infinite number of franken food products that I would never dream of eating... Meanwhile, I couldn't find a simple bag of pecans or walnuts! read more

Long lines, manager standing around being grumpy to people who skip line. No one knows where anything is. I've spent half an hour looking for a few items. Also they're always out of what I'm looking for. T Joe's is incomparably better. read more

(To square up the skewed unjustified average star rating) * SHOP HERE... IF you like lots of parking, a security person to greet you at the entrance/exit, employees to assist customers, & a pharmacy...hello!! That's right, shop and pick-up your medicine or get vaccinated. (Great pharmacy crew too!) To be honest... IF you don't mind limited selections & driving all over, sure you can find better prices elsewhere. IF you don't mind paying higher prices and limited selections, sure you don't have to wait in line to checkout. IF YOU PREFER... a parking spot right away, a great selection of fresh produce & everything else at fair prices, a convenient pharmacy, good customer service, & a relatively quick checkout... shop here!! read more

Employees were rude and were ignoring my questions. I went to the bakery section and was looking for the bag and tongs to pick up some bread. I noticed they were out so I asked for help. The first employee sent me away to go look for them myself. The second employee directed towards a bag and then walked away. I told a third employee that they were out of bags, just to be nice and make sure that they were aware, and they looked at me and completely ignored me. I spoke to them again a little louder and they continued to just stare at me without responding. I asked if they understood what I was saying and said no, to which I then replied, "Sorry but you have to tell me that you do not understand what I am saying do not just stare at me and walk away." Finally I asked a forth employee if they could direct me to a manager and they just gave me the name and kept working. I asked where I could find the manager and once again I was brushed off and she simply repeated the name. I asked for a third time where I can find the manager and they repeated the name then proceeded to tell me I had to find them myself. Overall the employees were rude, not responding to my questions and continued to brush me off with attitude. I do not recommend going to this store, all employees seem to be in a bad mood and are mean. read more

Worst grocery store in Santa Barbara. The lower parking area has two broken elevators that have been that way, way too long! The one that does work makes noises that make you wonder if you're even going to get out !! The stores quality is terrible, staff is unfriendly. Store is way too crowded and the lines are so bad all the time. I will drive to the other end of town just so I don't have to go in there. Fix this Ralphs. read more

The absolute worst , dirtiest and unprofessional environment I've ever seen. The staff is downright mean and totally incompetent. I asked three employees for assistance and every one of them was rude and didn't seem to care about my needs. When I used the restroom two employee's ransacked my wife's purse and stole several items Including her wallet. This was the worst shopping experience I've ever had . The store is filthy and the employees are of the most unhelpful variety. I'll never shop there again. What a nightmare. read more

I find it truly risible how this bourgeoisie Ralph's that would be 4 times as ghetto elsewhere is a two star Ralph's here. There's a friggin' fountain out in the front and custom tiling on the back of the building at the loading dock. The aisles are clean, immaculate and fully stocked. Whoever made that asinine gripe that beer cannot be purchased at self check out wouldn't be able to get that at any Ralph's anyway, because ID has to be checked with alcohol, Einstein. It's telling how a place probably swankier than many wedding venues can be rated two stars by Santa Barbara yelpers. Good grief. read more

Spacious which makes it easy to navigate. Lots is parking underground. Fresh produce when you enter. Convenient location. Didn't have that many cashiers so it was a bit of a wait but everyone is friendly. read more

I just visited Ralphs and bought some groceries. When I walked over to the meat department for ground turkey meat I picked up 2 packages, and the smell was awful. I asked the guy at the meat area and he said that it was a dripping issue around the meat. I went to check out and the smell was awful and gross. It was so bad the smell stayed in my fingers. I would suggest to please don't buy meat here. read more

Too congested. A dour experience too often. Have tl check pricing at rwgister to make sure it revonciles with shelf pricing. Staff and checkers work hard in general to be customer-friendly, but they faced that awful spectre of the Albertson-Kroeger merger. read more

Some really great long term staff over the years. It's almost always packed though. It's a large store; many selections. Usually pretty clean. Parking meh- hit or miss- just go below to the parking garage. read more

Only two cashiers with lines to the back of the store. This happens almost every time I go to this store. New self checkout is a joke. Line even longer for those. If you want to get deli or butcher service good luck. read more

One of the worst Ralph's I've ever been to...and I've been to many including Hollywood/Western. Managers are unpleasant and no one seems happy working here. Ava the mgr and the other young guy mgr have NO customer service grace at all. I'm done here. Bye Ralph's. read more

A sad excuse for a grocery store. Lack of customer service starts at the management level and works its way down to the other employees. Always seems to be understaffed, and the staff that are there seem to be so overworked they couldn't possibly do a good job. A good example of what happens to a business when it gets to be too big. The only thing that matters is how to squeeze out an extra few pennies of profit. read more

We've been shopping here for 10+ years, and are loyal to downtown Ralphs. The folks who work at this Ralphs are wonderful, helpful & kind. They persevered through the pandemic and did not bail in big numbers as other workers did. That said, the parking lot is EXTREMELY dangerous, and getting more and more so as time goes by. For that reason alone, and nothing else, I'm assigning one star. SB is a tourist town. Folks google "grocery store" and get off the freeway to shop here, or stock up their Airbnbs, year round. They do not have their bearings in SB. Out-of-towners do not realize that, beyond the small, crammed street-level parking lot, which features faded-paint "in" and "out" arrows off of a 3-lane, busy main street (Chapala St), there's a huge basement-level parking lot. As a result, they are aggressively zooming around the street-level lot, looking for spots, going the wrong way, and ignoring the two hard-to-see stop signs. There is no signage to tell them that there's an underground lot, or how to get down there. Zero. Meanwhile, in the underground lot, NO ONE is stopping for the stop signs which keep folks whom are exiting safe. Again, the stop signs are difficult to see. Drivers are literally zooming in and out of that lot. This is so dangerous. Today, I was twice cut off by drivers ignoring stop signs. One driver literally drove through the stop sign and aimed right into me. I observed a big back-up on my way in, two people shouting at each other, and prayed that they didn't have weapons. I spoke to the very nice folks who run this store. They seem powerless to change this situation. It doesn't help that the lot is now shared with the cannabis store next door, minimizing its already-jammed capacity. Note to Ralphs Corporate: DO SOMETHING. You have all of the resources ($$$) of the Kroger Corporation available to fix this. Create an agreement, as many SB businesses have done, to exclude the cannabis-store patrons from parking there, and create signage to indicate "Ralphs Parking Only." Enforce this via security staff. There is a city lot right across the street to accomodate cannabis store patrons. Make the stop signs, painted arrows and safety features bigger / more highly visible. Light them up for evening safety. Place security personnel in the parking lot, where they are needed, especially now / high tourist season in SB. If nothing changes, people are going to get hurt, I promise you. Thank you for your consideration. read more

They do not have Western Union at this Store Do not waste your time coming here for Western Union.im telling you this fact as a favor read more

This Ralphs has a good selection of meat and produce. The goods from the bakery are delectable, and you'll easily eat a whole meal worth of pastries if you're not careful. These are the reasons why it gets 2 stars instead of just 1. And those are the only redeeming qualities of the store. Otherwise, it's a great place to witness drama, either between managers and employees, or employees and customers. If you don't like it here, get prepared to suck it up because their response is, "If you don't like how we do things here, then go somewhere else." Yes, that was a real quote from an actual employee, and it was loud enough such that my cashier got distracted and paused scanning items so he could watch the drama. The listed hours are completely made up too. I remember being here 30 minutes before closing, with several other confused customers, in front of a locked door. The manager at that time then gestured the store was closed while another worker smirked at us. They seemed pretty happy not to actually have to do their jobs. I pressed the manager about this when I saw him another time, and he gave an excuse about staffing issues. The newer manager with blonde hair ain't much better either. She got mad at me for having the audacity to walk thru an open entrance door, and said they were "closed". I was confused, because other customers walked in through that door as well. I asked her why the door was open, and she replied, "Because I'm trying to lock it." This was strange to me, because in my 26 years of being on this earth, a set of open doors to a market with no signs saying otherwise pretty much means "Welcome in". When not harassing people for walking thru open doors, the manager can be seen accosting customers in the self-checkout section, or making condescending remarks to her cashiers. Now I have had good experiences with cashiers here, but my favorites have all left. My guess is that they have too much self-respect to work here. tl;dr: Just use the self-checkout. Get in & out as fast as possible before this store drains your energy. read more

Today, my friend was denied getting beer because they had an ID from another country. I tried to pay for it myself with my California ID and personal credit card, but Eric, the manager, spoke rudely to me and kicked me out of the store. Well to be honest he acted Racistly. read more

This is truly the worst Ralph's I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Three cashiers open in a full store, won't allow self-checkout for beer even though there's an attendant there. Liquor purchase requires you to wait and have your cashier get it, holding up the line further. It's just an absolute circus. read more

A Ralph's is a Ralph's is a Ralph's.. So let me tell you a little bit about this location specifically. I come here quite often for healthy cereals, organic green packaged smoothies on the go, bananas, ice cream, and holiday themed items. They have a massive selection of holiday themed items right in the front left section next to Starbucks and their prices are usually pretty great! Would definitely recommend check them out for at least ideas - They beat out the dollar store 9/10 holidays. The Ralph's brand foods are generally the most affordable and often come in Organic and Gluten Free options. My favorite are their cereals which are around 2.99 most often and beat out the prices of all the stores around town! The environment here is a little strange and you can really witness all walks of life at any time of day. I wouldn't say it's not safe but I also wouldn't advise letting your children run around by themselves throughout the store or parking lot. They have a two level free parking lot for customers, which is very rare for Santa Barbara and definitely helpful when it comes to deciding where the best grocery to get in and out of quick will be. It's also located right across the street from the bus station, so if that's how you get around it's very convenient. The staff here are pretty typical grocery store staff. Not the nicest people in the world and don't know a ton about their products but they get the lines moving. I have done a lot of business with the floral and balloons department which doesn't have assigned staff so finding people to help is a little consuming and a small struggle but in the end it usually works out. I will definitely be visiting often while I live so close and have my cereal, green smoothie, baking, and seasonal goody desires due to convenience and price preferences. read more

Shame on Ralph's! A guy is yelling at people outside. Goes inside and steals two bottles of alcohol. Hits a few cars in the parking lot with stolen bottles. Then goes out front on the sidewalk trying to ctack the anti theft tops. The guy starts screaming at people again. SBPD arrives and take him. Officer says he will be released in a few hours. No drug testing on the way in and Ralph's did not press charges. Way to go Ralph's! You do not even try to help our community! People are not held accountable if you do not step up and press charges. Discusting. Where is your sense of integrity? Security was never seen. Ridiculous. And go clean up the glass and anti theft tops left out on the public sidewalk! read more

Ralphs Fresh Fare - Hours offline, false advertisement! - Grocery Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

I was here on a couple of occasions during my brief visit to Santa Barbara. Clearly, something's off with the behavior of the staff as already pointed out by the rest of the reviews. Pros Huge parking lot Better hours than most CVS / other convenience stores. [This store's open till 2 am] Cons Behavior and services offered. We were desperately trying to look for coffee late in the night. We figured out the aisle but couldn't find what we were looking for and happened to ask one of the staff and received some cold/ unpleasant stares and questions which did leave us fairly surprised. Calling out again that my review is based off a couple of visits only. read more

Very bad employee and customer service they are treating customers like animals with no respect, I waited 15 minutes from 8:35 pm to 8:55 pm in December 31/2020 new year night in line 2 express with my daughter 6 years old, then the cashier said I'm done I'm not going to take anymore customers, and when I told him I was waiting he respond to me very mean and with disrespect, I asked him what your name he answered David, and what your last name I don't have to tell you. I don't know what kind of training these employees get read more

I love shopping at the downtown Santa Barbara Ralphs. The staff are terrific - especially Ray in the produce section. He always has a smile and a kind word to share with everyone. He's great and much appreciated by all of us lucky shoppers. read more

8:15 in the morning on a Saturday. One cashier. Long, long line of elderly and young folks. Self-serve machines not open. I left, but have seen this at Ralph's on Carrillo numerous times. I've complained to the CEO of Ralph's. Nothing's changed. There are other places to go. Very poor, not caring of customers at all. read more

Stopped by here for a snack and bottle of wine for a beach lunch. My wife and I decided to use the restroom while there. A combination was needed to access the restrooms. These were by far the WORST restrooms that we had ever seen. Neither one of us used them. I stopped the "security guy" and told him about the restrooms. He had a very "so what" attitude and said "welcome to America". Maybe his America? We left with nothing after this experience. I would also comment to the early review about CA not allowing liquor purchases at the self checkout line. Not sure why the person working in that area cannot check ID's as most states do? read more

I just moved here and this is the closest grocery store to me. My experiences so far have been way less than stellar and 2 stars below my rating of the Ralph's I used to walk to in Glendale. I saw they had my favorite brand of pretzels that are hard to find. I picked up 2 bags (there weren't many left) and was so excited to eat them when I got home. When I tried them, they tasted absolutely awful and the bag had a terrible smell coming out of it, like chemicals. I looked at the expiration date and it was a year past the expiration date! I went back in and returned them and complained. It's been over 3 weeks since then, and they restocked them all with the same expiration date again! How carelessly stupid are the people running this place? Also, NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, go between 3 and at least 6. Awful, terrible lines pouring into aisles where people are shopping. Cashiers take their time. read more

It's hours on their own door are FALSE AND A LIE. not a trustworthy business. Go to Whole Foods or Sprouts or Trader Joes, at least hours advertised are correct. An abomination to Santa Barbara. Leave. read more

Ralphs Fresh Fare - False hours. False advertising. - Grocery Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

I will start with the simple truth that I shop here because Ralph's has some good deals and this location is very convienent because of the abundant parking. I always get the highest quality of customer service from the self-checkout machines. "Welcome valued customer!" I love it. I refer to this location as "Homeless Ralph's" because it is a popular dwelling for a portion of Santa Barbara's homeless population. I would not recommend eating on the outside tables for this reason as I believe it is a public health problem. There are sometimes good clearance deals stuffed away in random grocery carts. There is also a rack in the back that is full of random clearance junk. While useful, it is also an eyesore. I think Ralph's can do better here. read more

Came here at 1:20AM on a Saturday eve as the hours posted stated open till 2AM. They were closed. Hours on door stated, "open till 2AM daily". Okaaaaay...so what ARE the hours? read more