What’s in a name? Apparently familiarity. We looked into the case of “Murder Heights” a while back, but what about “Murder Kroger”? What’s behind that quite popular and somewhat revered nick name? One that the locals don’t want to change. And then there’s “Disco Kroger” in Buckhead…yet another moniker well entrenched in the local vernacular. But back to murder…From Curbed Atlanta:

There are two stories to the name, one explains how it was earned in the first place; the other, why it persists to this day…

Let’s start with the less bleak one: The place has a sketchy reputation. Although decidedly less stabby than it once was (or as Atlanta Banana put it: “Murder Kroger Pleads Down to Aggravated Assault”), the area is not exactly Disneyland when it comes to crime stats, and the store itself, while better after recent renovations, has been serving up horrifying experiences since 1984.

When asked to list the creepiest thing that had ever happened to them while shopping at the rundown supermarket, the responses of Murder Kroger’s Facebook fans included accounts of muggings and carjackings in the parking lot, a guy peeing in the ice cream aisle, mysterious blood in the bathroom, prostitutes, drug deals, crackheads and used condoms trailed across the ground like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumbs. Still, in the end, this reason for the pseudonym is all in good fun and allows people to make dark but well-intentioned digs (Online reviews like, “It’s like they are trying to kill me with savings.”) based on the store’s dodgy reputation amongst shoppers. This one is almost certainly why the name endures.

The reason the it came about in the first place is far less light-hearted and much more tragic. In short: murders. The first, and likely the one that originally earned the store its macabre moniker, happened in 1991. On April 3, the AJC reported that a 25-year-old woman was shot and killed in the parking lot after spraying her attacker with mace. A second dreadful incident occurred in 2002when a dead body was found in a car in the parking lot. Journalist Elizabeth Williams Faas told The Plug: “I remember pulling into the back entrance of the store after work one night and being instantly overwhelmed by the stench of what I assumed had to have been a dumpster full of expired meat. You can imagine how horrified I was when I saw the headline Man Found Dead in Kroger Parking Lot move across the AP wire.” The location of a third death is technically the Ford Factory Lofts, but the victim, a 20-year-old Georgia State junior, was in the breezeway, just steps from the parking lot that the lofts share with Kroger, when he was murdered in 2012.

Then there’s the Disco Kroger in Buckhead. Some would argue that disco is as bad as murder but that’s a topic for later. The store opened in August 1975, and it was one of the first 24-hour Kroger groceries in town. A disco club called the Limelight opened next door in February 1980 with a glass floor and a shark tank. Stories have it that as the club would close, the patrons would stumble in here and carry on. This went on for years and the nick name was born – and stuck. In 2008 Kroger launched this store as their first upscale “Fresh Fare Kroger” and a disco ball owned by the Limelight, hangs in the store lobby along with a plaque commemorating the store’s legacy. Each night when the sun sets, the ball lights up and rotates until sunrise.

Here’s a look at a local news station that explains the story – and the nonsensical banter between anchors about their disco days.

- See more at: http://hankmillerteam.com/2014/08/15/murder-disco-kroger-familiar-atlanta-stores/#sthash.YsJLC5e7.dpuf