Ralph's is such a pillar of the upper east side! I'm really shocked they have such low reviews because this place is always clean, the staff are very friendly, and their selection is awesome. They have a floral department, a Starbucks, a subway, a sushi place, a pharmacy...etc. It is a little pricier than say winco, but you're buying local and their quality is very good! read more

My husband stopped in to buy cilantro because Thriftway is much closer to our house than other grocery stores. He paid twice as much for the cilantro than Fred Meyer and the cilantro was subpar. We expect comparable quality when paying 200% more than usual. read more

It's always fun to come in here for all your foodie needs. It's a grocery store with normal items, but also some finer versions of each type of food so you can try something a little nicer. This is where I go for the Seattle Chocolate bars (yes their $5, but they're nicer than regular Hershey bars and you can taste the difference. This location has a built in Starbucks, so you can kill two birds with one stone. I love all the fancy kitchen tools too and the PNW stickers they sell at the front. read more

The pharmacist just lied to my face about my COVID vaccine elligability and is ignoring the Governor's proclamationre that elligability for those under 65. In WA state you are eligible for the covid vaccine if you are under 65. read more

They......They sold me milk. So i went home and poured cereal than milk... the milk...was chunky. I m gonna vomit...

Stopped there at 7:50 am to pick up wind sock that my grandson saw yesterday wanted to get for his grandma, the one we wanted was gone but they had a different one that we liked better, no price on it so they wouldn't sell it to me. Walked over to get donuts from bakery and they had nothing in the case. Place is a joke, last time I do business with them. All stores that sell donuts start early morning to have them out for morning customers, and for putting out items with no price isn't my problem, should not of been told I can't sell it to you. The cashier did nothing to try to resolve the issue. read more

If you like paying double price for groceries for the ambiance of a nicer store than Walmart or safeway, this is the place for you. For those specialty items like a2 milk etc that you can't get in common grocery stores, this is a place to go. The service is friendly and the atmosphere is nice but the prices are very pretentious. read more

The young man in the Subway section was superb, a delight in every way. I think his name was TK, but he was the one with the curled out mustache. Give him employee of the month!!! read more

I love this store! They have a wonderful fish and meat department, and I like their produce. They have a very good selection of organic and free range eggs. The clerks and employees are very friendly here. read more

Obscenely high prices and rude management... tweekers & junkies always an issue here. I've gone here in the past out of convenience...never coming back after rude treatment by a manager. read more

I came here for my wedding cake at the bakery. Reegan designed my cake perfectly to the picture I sent her for my wedding cake. My cake was absolutely beautiful! I couldn't believe it! She did such an amazing job designing my wedding cake. It got so many compliments and pictures. It was so delicious too! The price was on point also! Thank you so much Ralph's Thriftway Bakery, Reegan, for doing such an amazing job on our wedding cake! Highly recommended to all brides! A+++ Thank you read more

I have lived in this neighborhood for 10yrs and go to Ralph's every now and then. I really love items in the store. But my problem is the some staff members are very racist. I have been to the store over 30 times and 25 of them I have left saying I will never come back. Please if you are a black American please do not go there. PLEASE for poor service to people of color. read more

Staff are friendly and responsive! They go out of their way to fill presecriptions and connect with my doctors to coordinate orders and special requests. read more

Worst store ever they think everyone is stealing and their bulk bins are stale. Overpriced overpriced overpriced terrible selection. Would rather go to Walmart read more

My mom filled her clean water jugs at this location this past Friday. She normally gets her water at Fred Meyer but the machine wasn't taking coins so she went to Ralph's. Yesterday morning (Sunday so 2 days later) she sees algae in the water. We have central air so the water jugs weren't sitting in heat and the jugs are cleaned before each refill which happens weekly. At first we think it it is her water machine but later we see that the water jugs we haven't used yet after filling up at Ralphs has green algae that has settled to the bottom. The water jugs are cleaned regularly before filling and we never had this issue with Fred Meyer water (the jugs are cleaned and scrubbed inside and out with hot water, vinegar, and baking soda, then dried out). Both my mom and I had been experiencing stomach pains while using water from one of the jugs and my husband told me that he had problems too. After we figured out it was the water from this store I wanted to call to let them know so they can check their setup and see if it needed servicing. I thought I should say something because I don't want anyone else to experience getting sick and I thought the right thing to do would be to let them know. I kept getting transferred around from whoever picked up first, to the deli who told me they don't have ability to help with that so they transferred me to the manager. The first two people were very nice to talk to. When the manager picked up I explained to him the situation kindly and calmly. He got defensive right away and told me it had nothing to do with their water system because they use filters so my complaint is invalid. I explained to him that I am not complaining, I simply wanted to let them know since that is where we got the water from and I didn't want anyone else to drink it and get sick. He was not polite and completely lacks customer service skills. He was tactless, rude, and assuming in response. He respond with "okay" in a dismissive way and hung up. When I explained myself I was not using a mean tone and I only called because the thought of someone else getting sick because I didn't do my due diligence to communicate a problem was unsettling to my conscience. It really seems like this location has problems and possibly even a high amount of complaints since his reflex reaction was very defensive and he took what I said as a complaint when from my point of view I am communicating something they should examine first to see if their machine needs servicing (cleaning/filters changed). Honestly I got off that phone call thinking the manager was not going to even check their system to see if their filters are expired or if contamination has somehow occurred. So if anything, definitely do not drink the water from their water dispenser. Even if you don't agree with a customer there isn't any reason to respond with defensiveness. The respectful response is, "Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we will get someone to look into this matter further." read more

This review is specifically for the pharmacy. The last few times I've gone to pick up my prescriptions the pharmacist and staff have seemed almost too busy to answer my questions and somewhat dismissive. When I told them I was having trouble with one of my medications not working properly and asked for suggestions on proper use they basically said they'd never heard that before and to call the pharmaceutical company instead of just answering my question on how to properly administer the medicine. I have used this pharmacy for a long time but I'm considering switching to another pharmacy because as a customer I would really like my question listened to and answered instead of being dismissed. read more

Positive: open 24/7 but expensive Negative: they like to run mops and floor waxers after 7pm. All night. But they don't sanitizes carts or keyboards They're aisles disorganized. You can find feminine items next to kitchen cooking items m; no where near other private parts items like toilet paper 5 aisles away read more

Great Smaller independent grocery store. There are many gourmet foods and products they carry. Nice, neat and clean organized store with friendly employees. Definitely, great and small scale store to shop at. read more

Friendly customer service and great selection! Prices are a little bit higher that some chains, but the local produce and other choices make it completely worth it. Love the deli burritos --wish they did them on the weekends. read more

I needed to pick up a few things for dinner in between Dr.'s appointments. I stopped in here at Ralph's. The prices were OUTRAGEOUS!!!!! So much so that I was offended and felt like I was being ripped off. There was a bottle of wine that I wanted to pick up. It was the Andre brand. At Fred Meyer it is $4.96, at Ralph's it was $9.99!!!!!!!!!!! A cucumber was $1.69. Need I say more? The indigent in downtown Olympia don't have a lot of options to go shopping and are forced to shop there!!! SHAME ON YOU RALPH!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

Pharmacy is terrible. Staff are habitually rude, medications are never in stock, and staff couldn't even figure out how to print current medications for transfer to a quality pharmacy. read more

Undoubtedly the most expensive grocery store in the area. It close to work, so when I don't feel like fast food, and I'm in a hurry, I swing in. And I cringe each time. I put off buying soda or chips here because I can buy them for about half from the vending machine at work. A couple weeks ago I swung in to purchase license tabs for my car. Didn't have any money, but had my trusty credit card. No....they don't take cards...what? Just moved in my car and went to the haggens (aka albertsons) down the street. Yes, of course, they licensing takes cards. They also have a chicken wing bar....but off track. Anyhow, I don't see how anyone would go out of their way to shop here....unless you like to throw away your hard earned money. read more

Once again Ralph's meat department is totally failing on their pull dates. I was looking for ground lamb on June 16 and the first package on the rack was a pull date of June 12 - 4 days after it should have been taken off the shelf! That's really bad inventory management. I did buy the next package dated for pull by the 16th but it definitely wasn't the freshest so I tossed 2/3s of it. Honestly I'm never buying meat from Ralph's again - too many failures. And if they are so bad at pull dates it does not give me confidence on what goes on behind the counter. Really a bummer because this is my neighborhood grocery store. read more

Great products , good staff, taking pandemic precautions seriously and have from the start.

There is a Covid-19 pandemic and though the governor has ordered mandatory use of masks by ALL employees working with the public, one of the employees in the Post Office refused to wear one. I mentioned it to her and and she merely shrugged it off. One of the other longterm employees acknowledged that they are all supposed to wear masks. I left a message with the manager of the store. It's time to boycott if they ignore this. read more

The store is locally owned and is a nice place to shop. The staff is very courteous and helpful. I see some think the prices are too high. There are other venues for budget food shopping. I enjoy having diverse choices in the community. Shop local! read more

I don't know what happened but Ralph's prices went up 25-30%. New owners? Crazy? Fred Meyers a bit of a trek but most things are half the price of Ralph's. So sad... no more walking to the store! read more

My wife stopped by the pharmacy to pickup two items for our sick baby granddaughter. my wife asked the pharmacist for help locating a product which he did not know they did not carry then my wife asked about the difference in ingredients between two similar medicines which he couldn't explain. My wife ended up leaving the store without anything she came for because of the unhelpful and frankly disinterested attitude of the pharmacist. You would think with such high prices Ralph's could afford to hire a caring and competent pharmacist. read more

The prices are horrible for EVERYTHING. They'd make a $2 bag of chips $6 if the bags didn't say "ONLY $2!" on them in bright white text. The Starbucks is a starbucks. It sucks (unless we're talking about the cake pops.) This store is only in business still because of the yuppies in Olympia and the tourists. (Or the people who just stop by for the convenience.) The staff is okay, there's a couple people who are cool. Everyone else is rude and you can just feel them judging you. For example, once I bought a thing of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. The cashier looks at me and goes "That's... a lot of sugar for one person." Another example is when I said something to one cashier and they just completely ignored me. Rude as rude can get. Passive aggressive and rude. End of story. There is one worker who I knew there, she was very nice. I don't remember her name but if I recall it I will update this review with her name. She was very nice and always awesome. I disliked everyone else. The Subway I never ate at, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and just say that it's a usual Subway. Now here's where I talk about the unforgivable part of this store. Their pharmacy. They refuse to sell morning after pills which legally you have to if you are a pharmacy. The pharmacy refused to sell it due to their religious beliefs. I believe you should be able to believe whatever you want. That's your right. But when you let it interfere with your business, especially when it's a pharmacy... you should have your business license revoked. Thanks for reading. read more

HORRIBLE PRICES but I was SHOCKED by the deli! What a joke! I completely blown away by their deli and how horrible the specials are! Say you wanted to get chicken for your family for lunch or dinner whatever you want to get a bucket of chicken right because if you buy it by the piece it's like 199 for a thigh and it's like 299 for one chicken breast which is insane so you obviously would want to get a bucket. YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT purchase a 4 piece 8 piece or etc piece bucket or meal unless you buy FRIED chicken. If you want to go a little bit on the healthy side since you're already buying technically fast food for your family you have to buy the chicken by the piece. Yet again we have junk fried food that costs significantly less than the "healthier" baked chicken. Here's the crazier thing you can go down the hill not very far from here to another Thriftway the Bayview one and order baked or fried it doesn't matter you can order baked specials or baked buckets you don't have to just get fried to get a special. I literally will never come to the store ever again. Btw the produce and store set up is actually better at Bayview Thriftway. read more

Good selection of unique items. As others have alluded to, their prices are a bit high in general, but surprisingly they have really good buys on certain items. Their bulk spices are really inexpensive. Good selection of beer too. I feel bad for the owners/employees. Its seems as they have an issue with keeping a certain kind of people out of their store. Shoplifting is a hidden tax that we all have to pay, if you see someone shoplifting please report them. read more

Having switched state capitals and moved to Olympia in June, I still have not settled into a routine for the purchase of such low-order grocery basics as milk and bread. With a two-year-old, we buy two different kindsa milk--2% for her and nonfat for us--and I do like trying to buy as local a product as possible when it comes to dairy. Ralph's does stock both the Smith Brothers and Darigold brands routinely, but it seems that the expiration dates are always within a week or even the very next day. My timing can't be that bad, can it? But now I'm done with trying to buy my milk there. Most items are indeed very expensively priced--often a couple standard deviations beyond the mean price of all other supermarkets--but surprisingly, a few things are fairly reasonable. A six-pack of Hansen's diet root beer is a thing I like to enjoy sometimes, and this is more reliably available at just about a median price here as anywhere else. In the dessert section, the frozen pies from a deservingly awarded bakery are actually downright cheap. For only 30 cents more than a pack of Franz, you can't buy better burger buns than the ones Ralph's reliably stocks from the Kalama Bakery. Those recycled cardboard pressed logs which are burnable in woodstoves and marketed as Envirologs seem to be hard to find anywhere but here, yet those are hardly astronomically priced here either. The produce section is kinda smallish, but a lot of what's on offer looks good, wears labeling which identifies its source, and is even priced competitively. Right now, for instance, the advertised avocado special is 11 cents per avocado more than the smaller cheapies at Fred Meyer, and these are apparently not tied to the drug cartels. Much of the complaints by other reviewers at Ralph's Thriftway pricing is totally warranted. Even the most ranty and hyperbolic are not far from the truth. For instance, there is almost never a jar of pasta sauce below $8.49 unless you wanna slum it for quality a'la Ragu. The eye-grabbing markdown pricetags are sometimes laughable for announcing such tiny discounts as 30 cents off a jar of cioppino sauce that is regularly $10.49 (yet a brand I've seen regularly priced at $9.99 elsewhere and only a few months ago found on a drastic discount for four bucks off). Otherwise, I can't complain. I like the friendly staff. I like that it's always open. I love the big neon diamond sign and individual letter panels that seem to be visible for half a mile as you drive up 4th Ave. I like that you can find decent skin- and hair-care products any time of day or night. The advertised seafood special is usually an okay deal for a fine product. The chicken strips are good at lunch (not so good after a few extra hours of heat-lamping, though (and always re-heat leftover strips in a conventional oven (I'm warning you: never microwave these!))). I'm done buying milk there, but I'll still go there for certain other things. As if it is merely a large convenience store that is always open. read more

Ralph's is my neighborhood store so I have to admit to my bias. The prices are a little high on processed foods, but I'm telling you, they have the best beef in town at great prices. (Sorry vegans...) If you're tired of tasteless beef, try Ralph's. Sometimes I find a small steak or even cube steak for less than $5.00. Are you kidding me? Now I'm hungry for beef. It's what's for dinner. read more

This place I could stay in for a weekend. They have it all and all of it's amazing. I love their deli though it seems overpriced it's worth it. They have Starbucks and I always grab a latte before shopping plus a burrito bar and Chinese bar etc etc. most of the products here you can't find many other places and every time I've bought fresh meat or seafood it's the best better than anywhere around I won't lie I spend nearly twice as much on the same number of grocery bags full I could get at Safeway but when I get home it's like Christmas unpacking it all. Just feels good. read more

I moved to Olympia WA a few years ago. I have experienced poor customer care the last three visits at Ralph's Thriftway in Olympia. Customer service is the biggest responsibility of workers serving the public. I made a mistake at the self checkout, and the checker corrected me from a distance. Everything he said was right. How he said it was wrong, and disrespectful. read more

Management is rude. I was self-checking out and he cancelled an item I added without telling me, walked over without saying anything, punched in stuff on the screen and then told me it's organic so he cancelled my item and did it right. Next time, walk over and let me know so I can fix it instead of rudely canceling and saying nothing until It's corrected. There Have been others times and issues - hate this store but for its convenience. read more

I've got to assume it's their location that keeps them in business because their prices are laughable!! Some examples: Cabbage $1/pd when I can get it for 69 cents/pd at Fred Meyer or 3 for 99 cents at Safeway. $2.50 for a single yellow bell pepper? Fred Meyer has them for $1.50 each. Tomatoes on the vine $3.99/pd vs Safeway's $1.48/pd or Fred Meyer's for $1.99/pd. (As of October 2018). It just goes on and on. Stopped in for a visit to use their "Welcome to the Neighborhood" coupon of $20 off $50 or more. The lady behind me exclaimed when I my total was rung up, "All that came to only $38?" and the checker had to explain why. Yup "all that" would normally been $58.05 and STILL would have only filled one small bag. Combine high prices without that great a selection of items and a smallish outdated store and I won't be likely to visit again especially with loads of competition available. read more

I really don't get the Ralph's thriftway business model. You come into the store, and other than the prepared foods section (which has some okay stuff), it is basically like every other grocery store except for one thing -WAY MORE EXPENSIVE. Other than produce, there was no real draw to this place. And then when you looked at the prices on the shelves you would wonder to yourself, "What am I doing here?" It was nice because it used to be just around the corner from where I was. The beer is way expensive but the funny thing is, they would always have ONE beer or a brand that was on sale and was a good price. So I'd always end up buying that beer. Sometimes it was Dicks or Deschutes, so that was a plus. Forgot to say the corn tortilla chips from Jalisco, MX were pretty good too. Expensive still. It's like Whole Foods prices minus the quality there, here at Ralphs. read more

One thing that amazes me about grocery stores out in Washington is the difference between chain grocers. There are far too many grocery stores that charge premium prices on items that are much cheaper at Fred Meyer or Target (and probably Walmart too). Some of them have attractive stores (like Ralph's) and some are not so attractive (go into Albertsons in Tumwater and you will see what I mean). Ralph's falls into the premium prices and pretty store column. I've been in Ralph's a couple of times and have been amazed at the prices on some items and impressed at the quality of the produce. Staff have been very mixed - some are friendly and welcoming, some are punching the clock waiting for their next break or chance to go home. Looking through the reviews of Ralph's I see that most are either five star reviews from people that have not reviewed many places on Yelp (ie. less than 15 or 20 reviews) or they are one or two star reviews, the majority of which have a much larger review history. I would not be surprised to know that many of the five star reviews were right to life folks. I have no doubt that the fact the store pharmacy's decision to fight a woman's right to have access to Plan B contraception prescribed to her by a doctor probably plays a role in this. Price alone will keep me from hitting Ralph's very often. The fact the family that owns Ralph's is taking their case for denying prescribed medications to women to the court system will be the piece that keeps me away. read more

It's just so expensive! And I don't feel like it's incredibly nice on the inside to warrant the outrageous prices. Like its sister store downtown, I try to avoid going here if I can help it. read more