Murder Kroger is the name by which the Kroger supermarket at 725 Ponce de Leon Avenue in Poncey-Highland, Atlanta has been known for decades, a name which remains common as of 2020. Despite ongoing development in the area, it has been described as a nickname "that just won't die". Kroger reopened a new store on October 16, 2019 at the same location, as part of the 725 Ponce development. Despite hopes from Kroger officials that the nickname "Murder Kroger" will not be applied to the new store, the name has already been adopted to refer to the new structure as well. A headline from 11 Alive called it a former nickname while a headline from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked " 'Murder Kroger' no more?". Decaturish, meanwhile, stated that "locals have a name for that just won’t die". Attempts to re-brand the location as "Beltline Kroger" proved unsuccessful, with the nickname instead being ascribed to another Kroger located several miles away, also on the Beltline. The store opened in the 1980s. Two fatal shootings and the finding of a corpse have occurred in the parking lot. In 1991, a 25 year old woman named Cynthia Prioleau was shot and killed. In 2002, the malodorous corpse of a man was found inside a car. And in 2015, an Alabama man, Joshua R. Richey, was shot and killed. The 2015 murder occurred after the store had been renovated and promoted by the company as "Beltline Kroger". On January 15, 2016, Kroger announced that the location would be demolished to make way for 725 Ponce, a mixed-use development incorporating office space, a new Kroger store, and expanded parking. The original Kroger building was demolished shortly after it was closed in October 2016.
History
An article in Creative Loafing called the store "one of the city's quirky charms that Atlantans seem to both love and hate at the same time". It opened shortly after 1986, when low-interest government loans were used to convert the adjacent and former Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant into lofts and commercial spaces. From the 1990s, and until at least 2002, the store had drivers license renewal services. In 2002 the store tested scan-it-yourself checkout devices. After two Publix supermarkets opened nearby, the store was refurbished around 2002. The closest neighboring Kroger, near Little Five Points, is the area's top performing one, as of 2006. In October 1999, a man robbed the Bank of America inside the store. A song titled "Murder Kroger" by the group Attractive Eighties Women, which incorporates a mention of the nearby Clermont Lounge into the lyrics, is dedicated to shoppers who frequent the store. Renovations were scheduled for completion in November 2014 at the market, including a bike/pedestrian ramp to the Atlanta BeltLine's Eastside Trail, a bike repair station, new curbs and sidewalks, new trees and landscaping, a "water quality pond" in the parking lot to filter runoff, new LED parking lot lighting and repaving the front and backparking lots.
Murders and corpse
In 1991, a 25-year-old woman, Cynthia Prioleau, was fatally shot in the parking lot. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution attributed the nickname "Scary Kroger" to the store because of the event. The murder was unsolved as of 2015.
In August 2002, a strong odor raised the suspicions of a woman who reported her findings to police: a dead man was in a car in the parking lot.
In 2012, a 20-year-old male junior at Georgia State University, Lee Lowery, was murdered just inside the Ford Factory Lofts, which shares a parking lot with Murder Kroger.
On March 10, 2015, Joshua R. Richey, a father of four from Alabama who was working on a construction project was fatally shot in the chest in the parking lot beside the Kroger building.
