Joshua Zhang, Contributing Photographer

Üni-Home Life officially opened its doors on Oct. 1, bringing its many colorful products to New Haven.

The Asian lifestyle store and gift shop is located on Chapel Street, right across from Vanderbilt Hall on Old Campus — a location within walking distance from many Yalies’ residences. New Haven residents Christine Lin and Szeki Lam own and operate the new store together.

“It’s like a gift shop, we have all kinds of gifts: [things] you might need to decorate your home or your apartment, [like] stationery, stuffed animals,” Lin said. “We try to bring something cute, something fresh, something unique to the community, because I’ve lived in New Haven for about four years and I love this city.”

The store offers a wide array of products, ranging from phone cases and keyboards to towels with animal designs. Üni-Home Life does not currently have a website, but they operate an Instagram page under the handle @unilife_yale. On their Instagram feed, viewers can see a variety of the products they sell in their store.

Both Lin and Lam are originally from China, where they said they often saw stores with a similar aesthetic to Üni-Home Life’s. For them, the opening of this store is a dream come true, as they are finally able to bring this experience to New Haven, as having a store is a complicated process, so knowing where to find FMCG experts can be great to learning how to sell all your products easily.

“[Üni-Home Life] brings back my childhood, my teenhood, so it’s kind of a dream,” Lin explained. “We had this idea about a year ago, so we prepared this store for a whole year and now finally it’s open.”

As a resident of New Haven, Lin said she has grown acquainted with the retail and restaurant businesses in the area. She said that while New Haven has many great restaurants, it is lacking in the retail and shopping scene. For Lin, the opening of Üni-Home Life is a solution to this problem.

“I have always liked this kind of cute stuff, so I was having trouble finding these products I like in New Haven or Connecticut,” Lin said. “I figured that maybe there are many people like me.”

Those who walk by the storefront of Üni-Home Life will notice stuffed animal decorations in the window display. The inside of the store is lined with rows of colorful products, maintaining the cute, playful aesthetic that Lin described.

Chun-Yuan Chang, a recent customer of Üni-Home Life, told the News that she had stumbled upon the new store while visiting New Haven from New Jersey. 

“We first saw the stuffed pumpkin, which is really cute, and I saw lots of cute Korean and Japanese dolls,” Chang said. “That’s why we came in.”

Chang owns other similar products from online brands, but she said she does not personally know of any stores like Üni-Home Life in the area where she lives.

Porter Guite and Maya Quintmam, who are both residents of Hamden, first found out about the new store when they came to Chapel Street for the New Haven Night Market.

“We went to the night market here on Chapel Street and [the store] had just opened,” Quintmam said. “There was this big goose [plushie] so we wanted to go in and it was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ [because] we didn’t see this store before.” 

Guite added that she “really liked the little plushies they have and the stationery,” and said that the store was the “perfect spot” for finding cute products to buy.

Gloria Kim ’26 told the News that the unique styles of Üni-Home Life are both adorable and affordable. 

“I think it’s very cute and minimalistic, also the prices are very affordable so I love going there,” Kim said, “I think there should be more Asian stores in New Haven. … It connects back to home.”

For some students like Kim, who comes from an Asian background, the lack of Asian businesses in New Haven can be an adjustment when arriving at Yale. However, she said the opening of Üni-Home Life provides another outlet for Asian students to feel more at home.

“At my home, we have a lot of Korean stores at Koreatown, H Mart,” Kim said. “We have stationery and all these things, … but in New Haven, there’s just not much Asian culture. I think Üni Life reminds me of … all the things I could buy back at home. … Overall, I think [Üni-Home Life] is a very good addition to New Haven.”

Üni-Home Life is located at 1046 Chapel Street.