Hansel Carter, longtime proprietor of unique Midlands store Mr. Bunky’s, dies at 84

The longtime owner of a unique Midlands store and restaurant has died.

Hansel Carter, known to many as Mr. Bunky, died Sunday, Sept. 29, at age 84. Carter founded Mr. Bunky’s Market, located at 10441 Garners Ferry Road in Eastover, in 1981.

An employee of the market confirmed to The State that Carter died. Members of the Carter family shared on Facebook that he “passed away peacefully surrounded by his family” and that information about a celebration of life ceremony would be announced later.

Mr. Bunky’s Market was open and operating on Monday when a reporter called.

The well-known country store located between Columbia and Sumter has long been a go-to spot for hardware, seed and feed, consignments, some groceries, gas and oil, and more. It also is home to a popular meat market and restaurant. Barbecue, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and other Southern delights are mainstays of the restaurant’s offerings.

Mr. Bunky’s store came to be when Carter purchased the former Po Boys Bait and Tackle, according to a post on the market’s Facebook page . Carter turned it into a market with ice cream, a grill and more, and later added a hardware store next door. The hardware store was destroyed in a fire in 1991 — one of the only things Carter was able to save from the fire was a beloved cockatoo called Sunshine — and was rebuilt in 1992, with the hardware store and and convenience store consolidated under one roof.

Through the decades, Carter was an absolute fixture at the market. In a June profile in The State , Carter said he was still going to the store seven days a week, and would walk there from his nearby home with his two dogs, Tippy and Gretel. (Yes, Hansel had a dog named Gretel.)

As for the Mr. Bunky moniker, Carter told The State in the June profile that it came from one of the first jobs he had in the Columbia area. He came to the area in 1958, shortly after high school, and went to work at a meat market in Forest Acres. His boss there gave him the nickname that would become his calling card.

“My boss told me he didn’t really like my name,” Carter said. “When the first customer came in, he introduced me as Bunky, and it just stuck.”

Mr. Bunky’s Market has been a popular hub for people of all ages and from all walks of life, from families who live in Lower Richland to workers looking for a good lunch to get them through the rest of the day. And it has welcomed Palmetto State dignitaries, as Gov. Henry McMaster visited in April.