At a store that never closes, an armed comedian keeps the midnight watch

But on the graveyard shift at JJ Food Mart, a small neighborhood grocery on Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard between Hollowell and Boone, Daniels feels more than just grim determination. He actually has fun. His side-hustles include work as a stand-up comedian, and the strange things he sees here in the dead of night give him some pretty good material.

Or, as he calls it, content.

Wrongdoers beware. While Daniels probably won’t shoot you, there’s a good chance he’ll put you on Instagram.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Daniels is 39. Most people call him Junior. He has lived most of his life in or near the place west of downtown that is sometimes called The Bluff. He says he’s heard so many gunshots and seen so many bodies around here that he’s become numb to such things. The Atlanta Police Department’s online crime-mapping tool shows about 20 homicides in the English Avenue neighborhood since 2020 (but none at the store).

Tonight is relatively quiet, other than the ragged hum of the freezer case, and as a Wednesday gives way to a Thursday morning he has a few minutes to explain how things work here at JJ Food Mart. It is also called J&J Grocery or JJ’s Food Mart, just as The Bluff is sometimes called English Avenue and vice versa.

Anyway, management understands that some theft is inevitable. One time a regular customer took a whole case of sardines, and for weeks thereafter Junior smelled the fish on him when he came into the store. The trick is to hide away the more tempting, expensive items, especially the small ones. If you want a nip of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, Junior will need you to pay before he hands you the bottle through a hole in the glass.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

By this time of night, some other establishments have been closed for hours. The Walmart supermarket on MLK Drive shuts down at 9, and Chick-fil-A follows at 10.

But JJ Food Mart never closes.

This is good for anyone on Lowery Boulevard who wants a frozen pizza or a dollar-25 PBR tallboy at 2 a.m. It is also good for JJ Food Mart, according to the owner, Sam Desai. The thinking goes like this: No one can break into a store that never locks its doors.

But if anyone were to contemplate robbing an open JJ Food Mart — as opposed to burglarizing a closed one — Junior would probably be in the line of fire.

Not long ago, someone did try to rob the place. Surveillance video captured the incident. It showed what appeared to be two young men or teenagers with black hoods pulled tight around their heads. They entered the store, pulled out guns and pointed them through the glass.

Junior was not impressed. He grabbed the semiautomatic rifle, or, as he calls it, The Stick. The would-be robbers fled. A triumphant Junior posted it all on Instagram.

“They had to be smokin’ some real stupid weed,” he said in the reel.

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Tonight has been generally uneventful. Some regulars play cards out front; others sit quietly at the gaming machines. The Campbell’s Cream of Chicken sits quietly on a shelf, and the Red Rock Golden Ginger Ale chills quietly in a refrigerator case.

“I like when (it’s) quiet,” Junior said. “Except when I’m lookin’ for content. ‘Cause sometimes I can read the situation, and I know somethin’s fixin’ to go down. And I let it go down, ‘cause I’m lookin’ for content.”

Two men fought inside the store. That became an Instagram reel.

Two women tussled outside the store. That became an Instagram reel.

A man brought a raw steak into the store, applied seasoning and raw onion, and cooked it in the microwave. That, too, became an Instagram reel.

But these situations are the exception, not the rule. Most of the time at JJ Food Mart, people get along. Junior gives fist-bumps through the glass. Men stand out front, shooting nothing but the breeze. On a recent morning, one customer started singing a song about someone looking fine, and others quickly joined in. One customer recognized another, and said, “How come every time I’m in the store, you’re in the store?”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

There are many signs around the store, but the rules are negotiable. A door leading to a hidden bathroom says NO ENTRE, but some customers go back there without getting hassled. Out front, another sign says NO LOITERING, but people hang around and usually no one chases them away. Robberies are less likely when there’s a crowd of potential witnesses.

“They support me; I support them,” said Desai, who has owned the store for about 10 years. “A simple policy.”

English Avenue is gentrifying. A gleaming Tesla cruises past an old pickup truck that a man has made his dwelling. Rundown homes fall, and fancy new ones rise. In an uncertain time, JJ Food Mart offers something familiar. People come here to see old friends. Several say the JJ Food Mart crowd is something like a family.

A man without a home used to spend time at JJ Food Mart. When he died, Desai paid for his funeral. Desai is 42, and his family is back in India. He likes spending time with his customers. Sometimes, for his birthday, he’ll take a few of them with him to a restaurant or a bar.

“I love everybody up there,” he said. “Whenever I’m getting bored at home, I come to the store. Just to chill out.”

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

About three years ago, Junior was one of those customers. He’d sold some drugs in the past and had been in trouble with the law, but Desai thought he was trustworthy. He made an offer.

“I was surprised when they hired me,” Junior said.

Now, behind the glass, his phone rings. His wife and young son. He answers.

“Well,” he says at the end of a brief call, “I love y’all.”

Around 10:30 on a Friday morning, Junior finishes another shift and walks out into the sunlight. Some weeks he works close to 70 hours here. He says he also works as an elevator attendant at a building downtown, and an agent books occasional stand-up gigs. It’s hard to imagine how this all adds up — how he doesn’t just collapse from exhaustion — but he says he needs only three or four hours of sleep every 24 hours.

“I’m finna go eat, chill, take a shower, relax,” he says.

Inside the store, above the Kingsford charcoal and the apple cider vinegar, the fluorescent lights of JJ Food Mart keep burning. They will still be on when the stars come out, and Junior comes back to work.

-Data editor Charles Minshew contributed to this report.