If you go there for groceries, you might never come back

I moved from Atlanta to New York in December of 2005 and so of course, a good number of the people I know still live in Georgia.  The other day, I noticed that a lot of my friends on Facebook "liked" a page dedicated to Murder Kroger and I kind of couldn't believe that someone actually created a Facebook page for the place.  But since my interests are often macabre, I "liked" it too.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Murder Kroger (aka Freddy Kroger) is the nickname for a Kroger supermarket located on Ponce de Leon Avenue in downtown Atlanta.  It first received this unfortunate nickname after a dead body was found in the supermarket's parking lot sometime in the early 2000s.  Throughout the years, there have also been other crimes committed in the near vacinity of the supermarket such as robberies and assaults, and it's generally considered not the safest place to do your midnight grocery shopping. Coincidentally, there's another Kroger supermarket located in nearby Buckhead that is referred to as Disco Kroger, which stems from the fact that the original Limelight nightclub (the one that would eventually be made famous by Michael Alig, James St. James and the other NY Club Kids of the 90s) was located next to the supermarket. And as you may recall, Michael Alig was convicted of committing the grisly murder of fellow club kid Angel Melendez in 1996.  It's a small, mad world, a'int it?

Kroger is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the south, and every time I visit Atlanta, I make a point to shop at one to pick up goodies for the duration of my stay.  The prices are reasonable, they have Krispy Kreme doughnuts flowing like honey and I never have to send out a search party to locate the fish fry (which is almost impossible to track down in the Stop & Shop up here).

Since I grew up in East Point, which is about 15 minutes south of downtown Atlanta, I never really had a reason to go to the Kroger on Ponce since there were other Kroger supermarkets located closer to my house.  It wasn't until I was in college that I made my first visit to the so-called Murder Kroger.

Even though I attended college in Athens, it wasn't unusual for me and my friend Melina to drive to Atlanta to see a band we loved play a show.  Oftentimes, these bands would play at The Masquerade, a venue located on North Avenue.  Despite the fact that at the pinnacle of our busy concert going lives we were going to The Masquerade at least once a week, Melina NEVER parked her car in The Masquerade parking lot.  I can't for the life of me exactly remember why, but it probably had something to do with having to pay to park there. 

Living in New York, people with cars are accustomed to paying to park their vehicles wherever they go.  But in Atlanta, that is a foreign concept.  I mean, look at all the space they have!  And why should you have to pay to park in the parking lot of a venue where you've already paid for a ticket to see the show?  And even though the shows we saw at The Masquerade were usually between $10-$12, we could never justify spending the money to park in the venue's parking lot.  The only other option was to park in the nearby Kroger parking lot.  If you parked towards the back of the supermarket that faced North Avenue, you could easily hop over the rusted railing and walk to the venue.

My mom always says that she was much more fearless when she was young and did a lot of things as a 20 or 30 something that she would NEVER do now.  Melina and I parked in that parking lot so many times, but we were never scared that anything would happen to us.  And nothing ever did.  Yes people got robbed there, and you'd see the occasional sketchy vagrant or prostitute walking around. The Masquerade even warned show goers not to park in the parking lot because lots of bad stuff happened to other people who had.  But we were fearless and it was so close and easy and it just made sense.  Also, after almost every show, Melina and I would actually go inside Kroger and purchase some snacks for the drive back to Athens.  I usually bought a raspberry filled Krispy Kreme doughnut (which when I'm craving really badly, I can thankfully purchase here in New York at Penn Station) and a bottle of soda, usually Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, or Mountain Dew Code Red (do they even make that anymore?). 

Since I haven't been to a show at The Masquerade in ages, I have no idea if kids still park in the Kroger parking lot when going to shows.  My friend tells me that the Kroger on Moreland is now much more dangerous than the one on Ponce, yet Murder Kroger will probably always live in infamy.

Earlier today, I came across this song about the supermarket by the band Attractive Eighties Women.  I'll leave you with this tune and a little advice.  You should always be hyper aware of your surroundings at all times, but especially at night.  But also, maybe don't shop at this supermarket at 2 in the morning. Just sayin'.