Bunny’s Convenience: Everything from soup to nuts – and yes, those winning lottery tickets

A new era of downtown shopping has launched with Bunny's Convenience.

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Ribbon cutting makes it official: Bunny’s Convenience is open for business on Elm Street.

MANCHESTER, NH – If Pramod Nyaupane seemed particularly thankful during the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside of his new downtown Bunny’s Convenience, 947 Elm Street, well, that’s because he is.

For starters, he thanked his wife Bibhuti, who works alongside him, “often 15, 16 hours a day,” and his in-laws, Tilak and Chandra Thapa, who pitch in here and there, including wrangling their grandson, Arnav. He also thanked his “right hand lady,” Tammy Ferrier, who will serve as assistant manager at both Bunny’s locations – the new downtown store, and the original superette, on Webster Street. Nyaupane also thanked all his beverage suppliers, including both his Pepsi guy and Coke guy, his construction team, his sign maker, his plumber, the NH Lottery folks, several aldermen, his banker, and even his attorney, “someone we don’t really like, but who we can’t do anything without.”

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Bibhuti and husband Pramod Nyaupane with Mayor Ted Gatsas at the grand opening of Bunny’s Convenience.

By the time Nyaupane got around to thanking Mayor Ted Gatsas, he was only warming up. Gatsas saw him turn the page on his “thank-you” list and declared he “had too many pages.” But it’s all about the gratitude for Nyaupane, who has worked so hard to achieve his dream, of owning and operating his own chain of grocery stores.

He got his start in the city 15 years ago as a clerk at the 7-Eleven on Webster Street, working his way up to assistant manager, then manager at the South Main Street store. In 2007 he and Bibhuti bought their first store,  Shop’n’ Go on Massabesic Street, which they sold last year. In 2010 they took over Bunny’s Superette and continued working additional jobs early on to make ends meet.

Everything has come together.

Now that the new store is open, he will have time to get back to business at the Webster Street Bunny’s, which is just as important to him as the new venture, he said.


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On Thursday, Nyaupane and his family turned the page on where they’ve been, and are focusing on the future. They will be working just as hard to make sure the new location is just as popular as the old original Bunny’s. As hoped, the community made a strong showing for opening day, coming out to buy everything from bananas and beer, wine and window cleaner, frozen dinners and fruit. And of course, lottery tickets.

Mostly, they came to officially welcome Bunny’s to the downtown neighborhood.

“There’s no way this is our final product. This is a start. We’ll be working every day, hard, to make it better and improve every part of the store, as you wish,” Nyaupane said.

Gatsas said a few reciprocal words of gratitude as he prepared to cut the ribbon.

“Thanks for coming downtown, it’s something the city of Manchester down on Elm Street needed for a long time, and I know you’re going to work hard. In such a short time after coming in and buying Bunny’s, seeing downtown Manchester was the place to be, you’ve invested in the city of Manchester again, and that’s just wonderful,” Gatsas. He reminded everyone to spend some money in the story before punctuating the sentence with the snipping of the red ribbon and launching a new chapter in the city’s business history.


After that, it was a mad rush to the lottery machines for many – including Gatsas – who were obviously feeling lucky.

“Maybe I’ll be the first lotto winner here,” said Michael Durant, who declared himself the likely “first big winner” at Bunny’s just moments after Mayor Gatsas did the same.

Roxanne Macaig, who works for the Hippo Press, was curiosity seeking when she stopped to check out the beer cooler.

“I like that he has a lot of local breweries here,” Macaig said, pointing to some selections from Stark Brewing Company, and Great North Aleworks. “It’s fantastic to see local businesses supporting other local businesses.”

Jane Robbins was in her work apron and on duty at the nearby cold case, stocking up sandwiches for the lunchtime rush. She’s worked part-time for Bunny’s “for a long time,” since before Nyaupane took over.

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Chandra Thapa, mother-in-law of Bunny’s owner Pramod Nyaupane, with Jane Robbins, sandwich maker.

“I’ll be here most every day, wherever they need me,” she said.

Starting Friday they will feature croissant and biscuit breakfast sandwiches in addition to the usual lunch fare – tuna, chicken and egg salad, ham-and-cheese. Robbins will be making all the sandwiches. When asked, she has a quick answer for the best part about working for Bunny’s for all these years.

“I love Pramod. He’s wonderful. He always comes through for me,” she said.

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Sharon Willier and Chris Buonopane check out the greeting cards, left, while Loretta Brady browses the medicine aisle.

Sharon Willier and Chris Buonopane work downtown at Nixon Peabody, and were among some of the first customers. They were lingering over the greeting cards and appreciating the new store smell.

“This is a nice place to come to grab something for lunch, and this little market will be great for students at the art college,” said Willier. “We were just talking about how great it is to have convenience items and someone piped up at work, ‘And wine.'”

“Oh look,” said Buonopane, “they even have bags of potatoes… and red potatoes. So many choices,” she said.

“And it smells great in here. Nice and clean,” Willier said.

Keith Murdough has been the butcher at Bunny’s Superette for about four and a half years. He says they’re already discussing the possibility of bringing more meat items to the downtown store, depending on demand.

“I’ve been down here for the past three months getting everything in order. Anyone can make anything look good, but it’s making sure it operates well,” Murdough said. “That’s the challenge. We seemed to make it work over at the other store fine. It’s beautiful here. The photographs along the wall fit right in with downtown. They’re perfect.”

He was referring to a series of historical photographs that detail Manchester’s history, including several landmarks from the past. Nyaupane worked with John Clayton of the Manchester Historic Association to get just the right collection of photos on display.

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Nh Lottery “Official lucky spinner” Jennifer O’Brien, left, with sisters Jennifer Messier and Janice Tentas.

Outside the store NH Lottery employees Travis Emerson and Julie O’Brien were helping customers spin the Lotto Wheel of Fortune for chances at free scratch cards and Lotto swag. Sisters Janice Tentas and Jennifer Messier earned a couple of scratch tickets with their lucky spins.

Alderman Keith Hirshmann was there on business – his business, SecurityNet, worked with Nyaupane on store security. He mentioned that the second floor of the building has another 5,000 square feet that could easily be transformed into Class A office space, which is currently in high demand.

“He pulled out all the stops to make this,” said Hirschmann of Nyaupane. “He’s tied in so many people from the community to bring it all together. I’m proud of him, such a young man, achieving his dream of opening a couple of stores. He’s making a real difference in the downtown community.”

Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce CEO Michael Skelton feels the same way. He stopped by to welcome Nyaupane to the downtown mix.

“It’s a perfect new amenity that fits a gap, and something that was sorely needed downtown. It will bring a lot of value,” Skelton said. “With the increasing downtown residential options, that’s only added to the foot traffic downtown and so you need amenities that complement those types of uses. What they’re providing here will cater to both residents and businesses, and it will be the start of more retail options coming into downtown.”


Store hours are Mon. – Sat. 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun. 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

 

 

 

About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!