The Kroger supermarket at 725 Ponce de Leon Ave. hopes to finally shake its “Murder Kroger” nickname with the unveiling of a new pedestrian/bike ramp to the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail, a colorful new mural and other revamps to the store. The unfortunate nickname has stuck to the store since a homicide in the parking lot more than 20 years ago. A string of crime-related incidents – a bank robbery inside the store, a dead body found in a parked car – kept the moniker alive, along with a song by the same name from a local alternative band.
A grand re-opening event on Nov. 19 gave Kroger the chance to show off its extensive interior and exterior revamp, including installation of a bike repair station, bike racks, doggy watering station, new sidewalks, landscaping, installation of a water quality pond and repaved parking lot. A colorful mural depicting the history and continued evolution of the area surrounding the Eastside Trail has also been created by Savannah College of Art and Design students Jing Li, Hanrou (Hannah) Li and Sena Kwon. The mural is on the exterior wall facing the store, which is now being dubbed BeltLine Kroger.
I hope you won’t participate in this charade. They are Murder Kroger forever!
It’s still Murder Kroger. As hard as they try to bury the moniker, you just can’t kill off tradition and culture with paint and an historic marker pronouncing the 2014 date of its demise.