UPDATE: Yellow Rectangular Slow Cooker

Perusing eBay today, I came across a listing for a new-in-the-box rectangular slow cooker. Never one to pass up a chance to check out a box or packaging for details and clues, I clicked through the pictures.

The seller graciously took a lot of photos from every side which, as both a collector and buyer, is wonderful. This photo of the top of the box answers a question posed in A Closer Look: Complete Yellow Rectangular Slow Cooker.

The fact that my slow cooker has a replacement West Bend, and not Sears, griddle lead to a comparison of the two. Both Sears' and West Bend's griddles are identical in size, material, feet, wattage, and temperature knob and label. The only differences are that the West Bend one is such a dark brown it can be mistaken for black until it's compared to the black handles, and that both the temperature label and griddle bottom read either "West Bend" or "Sears."

So I ruminated that the West Bend Company's small appliance division manufactured the griddle for Sears. What's more, since Sears rarely manufactured its own items and the West Bend Company also manufactured aluminum cookware, the West Bend Company could have made the entire product, including affixing the Merry Mushrooms decal.

​Coming back to the box. It was super thrilling to see a stamp on the top that not only answered the question, but also proved my suspicions correct (which, honestly, is always pleasing!). Though a little hard to read, it says, "From: The West Bend Company, 1100 Schmidt Road, West Bend, Wisconsin 53095. To: Sears [illegible], 2650 E. Olympic Blvd, ​Los Angeles, CA 90051." To a lesser degree, the box also says, "Sold by SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO." Sold, not manufactured.

Fun fact, the building at 1100 Schmidt Road in West Bend still exists and is a cookware plant now for Regal Ware, Inc. Regal Ware is the cookware company from nearby Kewaskum, Wisconsin which bought most of the West Bend Company in 2001.