La Copa Supermarket - Elizabeth, NJ

La Copa Supermarket

Opened: 1989 under current ownership

Owner: Orlando Mendes

Previous Tenants: unknown

Cooperative: Retail Grocers Group/General Trading

Location: 547 Elizabeth Ave, Elizabeth, NJ

Photographed: May 3, 2024

Before we begin, just a heads up: this was originally posted on August 4, 2019, but was rewritten with new photos in September 2026. And back in 2019, I had a full week of stores here in Elizabeth, New Jersey, of which La Copa was one. It's a small grocer on Elizabeth Avenue between the downtown area and the port. This store looks to measure only about 5800 square feet, with a tiny parking lot in the back. But the main entrance is up front on Elizabeth Avenue. La Copa has been here for decades, and was sold in 1989 but was already in business for some time at that point. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to trace much of this store's history beyond that, although back in the 1920s, there was an A&P here.

When you enter on the right side, you actually enter the last aisle (aisle 7). It has nonfoods and paper goods, and the butcher/seafood counter begins at the back of the aisle. A large butcher counter and packaged meat line the rest of the back wall, with dairy in aisle 2 on the left side and produce with frozen in aisle 1, the far-left aisle.

It's clearly an old-school market, but has been updated over the years. It looks like most recently, it got some new flooring and fixtures. There aren't that many pictures of the store's interior online, but here's an idea of how it was previously.

This store is independent and supplied by General Trading, which is based about 15 miles north of here in Carlstadt. The main focus here is Latin foods, as evidenced by the hefty international foods aisle...

It looks like the recent (not sure how recent) renovation was pretty extensive, since these dairy cases look new, too. Frozen foods definitely didn't get new cases, but produce might have...

It was fun to actually get to go inside this store, which I'd driven by many times but never actually stopped in. Elizabeth is dotted with these tiny independent supermarkets, and over time, I'm working on getting more posts updated so stay tuned!

This post was rewritten on September 13, 2026 with new photos.