TOUR: Twin City Supermarket - Elizabeth, NJ

Twin City Supermarket

Opened: 1985

Owner: Alfonso Perez

Previous Tenants: Twin City roller rink

Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group

Location: 1016 Sherman Ave, Elizabeth, NJ

Photographed: March 12, 2025

Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted in December 2017, but was rewritten with new photos in January 2026. Now for the post! We've seen supermarkets in former movie theaters, drugstores, auto garages, banks, car dealerships... but this is the only roller rink-turned-supermarket I'm aware of. This building dates back to the 1940s as the Twin City roller rink, so named because of its location right on the border between Newark and Elizabeth, in Elizabeth's North Elizabeth neighborhood. As a matter of fact, this was a roller rink my parents actually went to when they were growing up in Elizabeth. The building is pretty large for an independent urban supermarket, coming in at 43,000 square feet, plus a roughly 40,000 square foot warehouse at the other end of the property from which Twin City distributes to their other locations and a handful of independents.

It's not hard to imagine the roller rink entrance under the Twin City sign above, but these days, the supermarket entrance faces the parking lot to the right. Produce runs along the right-side wall of the store, with sale items and dairy on the back wall (and dairy continues down the last aisle). The last aisle is a double-wide aisle with frozen foods in the middle and service seafood, deli, and butcher counters lining the left side wall. Packaged meats are in the front-left corner, and the registers line the front wall. In the front-right corner just next to the exit is a cafe, bakery, and hot food bar along with a small seating area.

Although the interior is showing its age, it's been impeccably maintained. The lighting has been replaced relatively recently, as have some of the fixtures.

The store is very deep and narrow, meaning the aisles are very long, but as I recall, there are only about ten aisles.

This store competes most directly with a Stop & Shop that's about 10,000 square feet larger about three and a half blocks south. It's also a little under a mile from the SuperFresh in Hillside, and there are a number of smaller markets and bodegas around these neighborhoods of northern Elizabeth and southern Newark. This store is also just about half a mile from the Newark Airport, to give you an idea of the location if you're not familiar with North Elizabeth.

The focus here is on Latin American foods -- the owners are Cuban-American -- but there's a full line of general grocery, too. Here's the back of the first aisle, behind the produce department.

There are some unusual features of the store's interior, which I have to assume are remnants of the building's past as a roller rink. Check out these curved walls at the back!

The grocery aisles are pretty straightforward, and stocked with Parade and Life Goods / Life Every Day storebrand items from General Trading.

There's also a larger-than-average selection of nonfoods and general merchandise here, likely because this store is a bit larger than most urban supermarkets like it, and also likely because there isn't a large store like Target or Walmart in the immediate area.

Frozen foods and dairy are in the last aisle, with service counters running along the side wall (you can see the red awning below, which is roughly where they are).

Seafood is at the back, with deli in the middle and butcher up at the front. Packaged meats are in front of that.

The interior here is old-school but, as you can see, in excellent condition.

Looking towards the back-left of the store...

Packaged meats and dairy are in the front part of the last aisle, with open freezers in the middle of the extra-wide aisle.

And a look across the front-end, with a great high ceiling because of the building's past. There's actually an arched roof up there above the drop ceiling.

And the hot food/cafe area is in the front-right corner just next to the exit.

Here you can see the service counters and small seating area.

This store continues to be one of my favorite independent supermarkets in the area, not just because it's a good store that seems to be very well-run, but because of its unique past. Worth a stop if you're into retail oddities -- or Cuban food!

This post was rewritten on January 7, 2026 with new photos.