The Cheesemeyer pictured on a postcard from 1906. — **The u003cemu003eCheesemeyeru003c/emu003e pictured on a postcard from 1906.** AGNH Collection Sissach

In Jelmoli’s shadow

The ‘Cheesemeyer’ in Sissach was the first department store in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. Like Zurich’s Jelmoli, it was also a family business.

Rachel Huber

Rachel Huber is a historian and associate researcher at the University of Bern.

February 2025 marked the end of an era for Jelmoli, the biggest and most famous department store in German-speaking Switzerland. After over 120 years of trading, the flagship store closed its doors for the last time.

Jelmoli’s story began in the 1880s with Hans Peter Jelmoli, whose real name was Giovanni Pietro Guglielmoli. Hailing from an Italian peasant family, he grew up close to the Swiss border and learned the ropes of the retail sector after marrying the daughter of an Italian merchant. His first business was located in Zurich’s Schipfe district, where people could no longer haggle as prices were fixed, which was a completely new concept at the time. Then, between 1897 and 1899, his son Franz Anton built the imposing glass palace just off Bahnhofstrasse. The building was inspired by Chicago’s skyscrapers and was the first of its kind in Europe. In terms of style, it was based on the grands magasins of Paris, which had opened there from 1855, redefining the way consumers shopped.

The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported on the opening of a “big new department store in Zurich” in September 1899. — **The u003cemu003eTages-Anzeigeru003c/emu003e newspaper reported on the opening of a “big new department store in Zurich” in September 1899.** Baugeschichtliches Archiv Zürich

According to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, this new department store had a ‘metropolitan character’, which was consistent with Zurich’s aspiration of becoming a real city. Meanwhile, this story was echoed – albeit on a smaller scale – a little further to the northwest, in Sissach in the canton of Basel-Landschaft.

Key transport hub

Sissach had been on the most important trade route from Basel to Chiasso since 1230. This section of the Gotthard route would take you through the main thoroughfare (then a country road), which was soon lined on both sides by important buildings, such as the Wachthaus (guard house) and prison. In 1854, when the railway was built by the Schweizerische Centralbahn (SCB), Sissach became a key transit point. This would later benefit the canton’s first department store.

The Schweizerische Centralbahn connected Sissach to a major transport network. Postcard from 1905. — **The u003cemu003eSchweizerische Centralbahnu003c/emu003e connected Sissach to a major transport network. Postcard from 1905.** Wikimedia

The story of the Meyer-Kunz family, who were behind the first department store in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, can also be traced back to a newly-opened railway line. When the train connection from Basel to Olten opened in 1858, travelling merchant Joseph Meyer (1829–94) from Hergiswil came to Sissach with his wife Marie (née Kunz). There, Meyer travelled from door to door as a pedlar selling his wares to residents. The future wealthy entrepreneur therefore started small, just like the Italian Jelmoli in Zurich.

**Joseph Meyer-Kunz photographed in 1875.** AGNH Collection Sissach

The Meyers bought a couple of properties on what is now the main street, Hauptstrasse, as they wanted to open a grocery store. As well as the goods department, there was also a butchers and an inn called Sternen. The Meyers’ wide range of products, comprising everyday necessities such as groceries, as well as furniture, fabrics and clothes, went down well with the locals. Meyer had developed a keen understanding of the tastes and needs of the local people during his time as a pedlar, and designed his product concept accordingly. The store was a big hit – and not only with local people. Meyer’s reputation for quality goods spread from Fricktal to Basel and as far as the Black Forest. Customers were particularly taken with Meyer’s excellent cheese, which is why from then on Josef Meyer became known simply as Cheesemeyer. And the name stuck. Over time, the family accumulated wealth, which enabled them, for example, to finance Sissach’s first water-pipe system.

Josef Meyer died in 1894, and his estate was divided up between his sons and daughters. This resulted in a complicated situation with regard to real estate and co-ownership. Nevertheless, Meyer’s children and grandchildren managed to build the Cheesemeyer up to become the canton’s first department store.

Enter the next generation: family photo with the children and grandchildren of the first Cheesemeyer, 1923. — **Enter the next generation: family photo with the son of the first u003cemu003eCheesemeyeru003c/emu003e, his wife and children, 1923.** AGNH collection Sissach

In 1901 they worked with architects from Basel to transform the single-storey shop into a department store on several levels. The ground floor and first floor were used for commercial purposes and the second and third floors were residential. To ensure that only the very best wares made it onto Cheesemeyer’s shelves, in the 1920s and 1930s, Seppi, one of the founder’s grandsons, would travel to the market in Basel to hand-pick products himself. The department store together with the neighbouring Sternen inn and the farm selling its own produce opposite constituted a proper shopping centre.

**Employees posing for a photo in front of the newly built department store, 1903.** AGNH Collection Sissach

Sissach train station and forecourt (belonging to the SCB) and the Cheesemeyer evolved to become an extensive building complex thanks to a footpath that developed over time between the two buildings. The path then became known as the ‘Cheesemeyer-Wegli’ (Cheesemeyer path). People who travelled to Sissach from out of town would ask for a ‘Cheesemeyer return’. At least that’s how the story goes. This highlights the importance of the Cheesemeyer department store to Sissach as a key business location in northwestern Switzerland in the early 20th century.

Although the Meyer-Kunz family was later torn in half (with the Meyers on one side and the Kunzes on the other) and embroiled in decades-long inheritance rows that influenced the store’s fate, Meyer’s heirs managed to keep the canton’s first department store up and running for a century until it closed its doors to customers in 1995.

Since then, the Cheesemeyer building has been repurposed several times. Today it is a cultural centre, but you can still see traces of its department store past if you look hard enough.

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