3.5 stars
I want to love the Ranch Market for so many reasons. It's the closest Market to my house, it's fun and lively, the produce looks great, and the prepared food smells wonderful.
But I don't love it. I'm actually somewhat annoyed by this store.
Numerous times I have entered looking for something and haven't been able to find it. I know you're thinking it's some wierd gringa item I'm looking for, but this last time I was looking for canned tomatoes to make chili. Canned tomatoes!?!?! I'll cut them a little slack because I actually sent the husband to do the dirty work and he couldn't find it after asking 2 or 3 employees. I have a sneaking suspicion that they do actually have it there, because it would be ridiculous for a Mexican market to not have canned tomatoes.
Another time I took an out-of-town friend. He was so enamored with the beauty of the bakery items that he wanted to photograph the many cakes and pastries. But the tub-o-security rolled over and said "No Photographs!" Seriously? These people work so hard to make such beautiful creations and we can't take pictures? Of food? (Ironically, the next day we went to Taliesin West and were encouraged to take photographs of everything except the gift shop.) And, we left empty handed because the store didn't have 2 of the ingredients we needed.
Bottom line: If I'm incredibly unspecific with the ingredients I am looking for, I can definitely do some grocery shopping here. But any ideas for meals are usually thwarted and I end up at Safeway.