'Murder Kroger’ morphing into ‘Beltline Kroger’?

The Kroger on Ponce De Leon Avenue, nicknamed ‘Murder Kroger’, recently added a mural, an access ramp to the Beltline, bike racks and a bicycle repair station. A Kroger spokesman said they would prefer to be known as ‘Beltline Kroger.’ BEN GRAY / BGRAY@AJC.COM

The Kroger on Ponce De Leon Avenue, nicknamed ‘Murder Kroger’, recently added a mural, an access ramp to the Beltline, bike racks and a bicycle repair station. A Kroger spokesman said they would prefer to be known as ‘Beltline Kroger.’ BEN GRAY / BGRAY@AJC.COM

Will the newly remodeled Kroger store on Ponce be able to shake its old nickname?

Kroger officials are quietly hoping the 'Murder Kroger' moniker that informally stuck to the store at 725 Ponce de Leon Ave. after the killing of a woman in its parking lot in the 1990s — will become better known as the Beltline Kroger, according to a report on wabe.org.

That makes sense, as nicknames go, considering the proximity of the store to the nearby Beltline, a network of parks, trails and transit being developed on a 22-mile former railroad corridor circling Atlanta’s intown neighborhoods.

“We prefer our store be called Beltline Kroger,” Glynn Jenkins, spokesperson for Kroger’s Atlanta Division, told wabe.org., ahead of Kroger’s grand reopening of the store next week.

“Beltline Kroger” definitely has a better ring to it, some local residents agreed.

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