A soda display at Ralphs. jeff_soffer / Flickr
Ralphs is closest to my home so when I forget something from Trader Joe’s, Ralphs it is. Here are my six secrets to saving money at Ralphs.
Clearance rack – This is one of the best kept secrets at Ralphs and other grocers. When food nears its “sell by date,” employees move it to a special clearance rack that is often hard to find. But it’s worth seeking out, because items are 50% off or more! At my local Ralphs, the rack is all the way in the back near the refrigerator section. It tends to have a lot of bread and a few blemished produce. Last time I found whole wheat dinner rolls for $.99. We ate them that night with pasta and they where yummy.
Meat sale – You don’t have to stick to
cheap cuts of meat to save money on groceries. Ralphs also reduces the price of meat when it is close to its “sell by date.” These items won’t be moved to a special section. They’ll be marked with a red sticker that reads reduced. Don’t worry about the taste. As long as the meat is not expired, it should be good. If you don’t intend to eat the meat that same day, freeze it immediately to extend it’s shelf life.
Ralphs Rewards card – The Ralphs rewards card gives you 1 point for every dollar you spend. You can also earn 5 points if you bring your own bags. You’ll earn $5 in reward certificates for the first 500 points and $1 for every $100 after that. Remember to swipe your card to get your points and remind the cashier to give you your bag points. Recently, I earned a $2 coupon for Haagen Dazs ice cream.
Coupons – In L.A., Ralphs doubles coupons up to $1 (check the coupon policy in your area). Every Wednesday we share the best grocery coupon deals at Ralphs so you can get food stuffs for pennies on the dollar – sometimes even for free!
Digital coupons – If you haven’t already, sign up to receive e-coupons tied to your rewards card. These coupons are loaded directly onto your rewards card so all you have to do is remember to swipe your loyalty card at the register. When you buy an item that has a coupon, the dollar off savings automatically ring up. You can load up to 150 coupons at once. Digital coupons cannot be doubled and you are limited to one digital coupon per transaction. These coupons are digital versions of the manufacturer’s coupons that come in the Sunday newspaper, so you cannot combine them with newspaper coupons.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
I do the same thing at Ralph’s. I always look to the clearance rack to buy my bread, and if you hit it on the right day every week, I believe usually Tuesday and Wednesday, they have perfectly good loaves of bread of all brands for $.99 a loaf or $1.49..Can’t get better than that! Or how about hot dog and hamburger rolls for $.49!? Great buys!
If you have multiples of the same coupon Ralphs in LA will only double the first coupon, the others will be face value – which stinks. The load to card coupons on their website are pretty good though. I’ve gotten some super cheap TP and paper towels that way. Sometimes they also have free product offers on there – recently it was for Magnum bars but I missed out.
How do I sign up to receive e-coupons tied to my rewards card?
Other cool tips:
If you buy gift cards from Ralphs, they will double your points, and if by any chance your points add up to 100 and you pump at Shell, you get 10c off each gallon when you swipe your card before you pump.
AND, if you use your credit card and get reward points from them, they add up too so you can redeem more gift cards, like Starbucks! (I so far have never had to pay for another cup of chai tea again…)
@Allisha Those are some really good tips. Thanks for sharing!
To sign up go to Ralphs’ website and click on the Ralphs reward card on the upper right side. Then you’ll be asked if you want to sign in or sign up. Make sure to include your card number when you do this so you can get the coupons.
Hope this helps.
@Michelle I’m going to have to check out the clearance rack on those days to see if it’s the same at my Ralphs.
Once you sign up for the digital-load coupons, will you automatically get the new ones as they become available? Or do you need to keep going to the site to stay current?
I shop at the Ralphs in Sherman Oaks at Van Nuys Blvd. and Burbank Blvd., and the “used” rack by the cooler cases is almost always bakery products, with the occasional canned or jar product. I have found some pretty good deals on discounted meats.
If you do the self-check-out, you might get additional coupons for future purchases right next to where your receipt is spit out.
A few weeks ago when I bought a large amount of canned dog food, I got a Ralph’s coupon (not manufacturers) for $4 off the next purchase – no specific products needed to be bought and no amount needed to be spent.
I do have one gripe, however. At the self-check section, a lot of people dump both their receipts as well as coupons in the nearby trash. I wish there would be a way that another customer (me?) could use a coupon that someone else doesn’t want….
I just dig them out of the trash inconspicuously, you don’t have to have the reward card used to purchase for the coupons. Too bad there isn’t a drop a coupon take a coupon box, like for pennies.
@Nancy and Cleverwabbit I would dig them out of the trash, too, as long as it was relatively clean. If it’s all paper trash, no biggie in my book. Maybe a suggestion to the manager would be a good first step towards getting a coupon recycling box at the self-checkout aisle.
@EllieD ~ If I understood your question correctly, yes, you must check the site with some regularity. The coupons are not automatically loaded onto your card. You select those you want and load these. Hope that helps.
@EllieD: in my experience with the digital coupons, Ralphs e-mails me with regularity (maybe once every two weeks?), linking me to site and asking me to check off the coupons I want to add to my card). I’ve never had to go to the site since Ralphs “reminds” me in this way.
Thanks to Diane and Valley Girl for the good suggestions. I do get coupons mailed by Ralphs every 2 or 3 months, but haven’t received a reminder about using their site. I’ll keep my eyes open for that, and will check out the site.
@EllieD You have to sign up for the reminders. You can do so when you register your card on Ralphs’ website.
Ralphs has paired up with Shell gas stations near me (Los Angeles), so you get 10 cents off each gallon of gas if you swipe your Ralphs card, and you get double points if you show a Shell receipt with a swiped Ralphs card. It’s a gimmick and they’re not my favorite places but it’s still a nice savings.
@Valley Girl and Yazmin ~ Yes, you’re both right. I had forgotten that the e-mails are sent periodically by Ralphs because I signed up quite a while ago (Yazmin’s comment prompted me to check), and they’re not inundating. So, periodically when I’ve thought about it, I’ve gone to the site to check for the digital coupons.
bargainbabe, I HAVE dug the automatic coupons at self-check-out out of the trash, but the keeper of the self-check-out told me it wasn’t allowed. He said it was “against the rules.” I inquired with the manager why and was told that only the person who received the coupon could use the coupon since an ID # was imprinted on each coupon. Also, they didn’t want the employees going through the trash for coupons.
Cleverwabbit, I really like your “drop a coupon take a coupon” idea! I actually mentioned something like that to the self-check-out person, but I was blown off.
Anyone want to propose “drop a coupon take a coupon” to their local Ralphs and see what happens?
Every once in a while at Ralphs, they run a promotion along the lines of “Buy Four Procter & Gamble Products, Receive 400 Rewards Points.”
Does anyone know the cycle/frequency of this promo? I usually try to hold onto my P&G coupons and buy P&G items like Tide, Bounce, Dawn, Pampers, etc., when they do the promo so I can get the points, but I have no idea about the timing.
which Ralph’s doubles coupons? Because mine defiantly doesn’t (off wilshire)
@Kerry Ralph’s does not double coupons outright – they double coupons up to $1. So a $.25 coupon doubles to $.50, a $.50 coupon doubles to $1, and a $.75 coupon doubles to $1. Coupons for $1 or more do not increase in value. Make sense?
@Kerry ~ According to the ad flyer that I receive each week, all Ralphs markets double coupons up to a dollar. From a dollar on up, they’re at face value. Have you asked your store manager about their policy being different? Also, you might want to contact corporate via the Internet to find out whether individual stores set their own policies.
@EllieD Thanks I will contact the corporate and ask. And @bargainbabe I realize its only up to a dollar but many times I have given them a 25 cent coupon and all that has come off is 25 cents.
You can also get markdown packaged produce at Ralph’s on Tues/Weds. I can usually find salad, some of the organic pre-prepped stuff and sometime cut fruit.
@kerry ~ Perhaps those particular coupons were marked “not to be doubled” or something similar.??
How do I get digital coupons? I only have an iPad and no printer.
If you have a Ralphs account, you can access it on your web browser or on the Ralphs app and load the coupons directly to your account. No printing necessary!