A Montclair native who helped ship more than 8 million snack subscription boxes around the country is trading her warehouse for a storefront. Monique Zauner, co-founder of Universal Yums, is opening a gift shop and art gallery called A Wonderful Time at 488 Bloomfield Avenue on October 1, right next door to the historic Claridge movie theater.
Zauner co-founded Universal Yums with her partner in 2014 after both quit their jobs at Procter & Gamble, according to Montclair Girl. The subscription service, which delivers monthly boxes of international snacks, has shipped more than 8 million boxes since its founding. Zauner retired from Universal Yums this year to launch her new venture back in her hometown.
Before jumping into consumer products, Zauner spent her early career as an associate manager of consumer and market knowledge at Procter & Gamble, analyzing market research and consumer behavior, per Forbes. She and her co-founder started Universal Yums out of an apartment in Cincinnati with just $2,000 to $4,000 in personal savings, the outlet reported. That bootstrapped operation eventually grew large enough to land on the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing private companies by 2019 and to require a 21,000-square-foot warehouse in Parsippany, New Jersey, according to Choose NJ, shipping tens of thousands of boxes a month.
What's Inside the New Bloomfield Avenue Storefront
A Wonderful Time will stock stationery, art, homeware, and confectionery, plus scarves, puzzles, prints, frames, and cards, per Montclair Girl's reporting. Zauner herself will design many of the store's products, and the shop plans to feature first-to-market original items that aren't available elsewhere. The lineup won't stay static, either — the store's report notes that product offerings will shift based on customer interest and feedback.
Three interns helped get the shop off the ground, handling everything from product sourcing and vendor management to buying, merchandising, marketing, e-commerce, and store design. One of those interns sourced vendors at Shoppe Object, described by the show's organizers as New York City's premier semi-annual home and gift trade show, showcasing more than 800 independent brands at the Starrett-Lehigh Building, according to Shoppe Object. The juried event is widely regarded as a key showcase for independent retailers chasing design-focused products.
A Wonderful Time already gave locals a preview. The shop held a one-day trial opening featuring delft plates, antique vases, and sweets, according to the same Montclair Girl account. Once fully open, the store plans hours of Wednesday through Friday from 4 pm to 9 pm, with weekend hours running 11 am to 9 pm.
A Cultural Anchor Right Next Door
The shop's location puts it directly beside The Claridge, a 100-year-old, six-screen cinema now operated as a non-profit art-house theater by Montclair Film, which stepped in to rescue the historic venue from permanent closure following pandemic shutdowns, according to Montclair Film. That steady stream of moviegoers gives the new gift shop a built-in flow of foot traffic on one of downtown's busiest pedestrian stretches.
The address itself carries its own history. The space at 488 Bloomfield Avenue once housed the Three Crowns Restaurant, a mid-20th-century Swedish smorgasbord landmark that turned up in vintage postcards, and later became home to the Montclair Mezzanine event venue, per Flashbak. Bloomfield Avenue has hosted an evolving mix of dining and retail concepts over the decades, and the storefront falls within the Montclair Center Business Improvement District, which supports more than 300 downtown businesses along Bloomfield Avenue and adjacent streets, according to the Montclair Center BID.
Part of a Busy Season for Bloomfield Avenue
A Wonderful Time's debut arrives amid a wave of retail turnover along the corridor. Bakery Tous Les Jours closed its Bloomfield Avenue location in Hoodline's report from last month, and other food and retail spots have been shuffling in and out of downtown storefronts throughout the year. Zauner's shop joins that mix as one of the few concepts leaning into locally curated, gallery-style retail rather than food service.
The broader appetite for novelty and discovery that fueled Universal Yums' growth hasn't gone away, either. A 2023 industry report from Mondelez International found that global consumers are increasingly swapping traditional meals for snacks, a trend that helped drive rapid growth across subscription-based novelty treat markets. Zauner's pivot from that world to a physical, hyper-local storefront marks a deliberate change in strategy — testing whether a curated, feedback-driven retail model can build the same kind of loyal following she found online.
