Khloud, the functional snack brand co-founded by Khloé Kardashian, entered Costco this week with a club-exclusive 12oz value-size bag of its White Cheddar Protein Popcorn, landing in more than 50 locations across Los Angeles and Orange County at a $9.89 retail price point. The move marks the brand's largest packaging format to date and its first foray into the warehouse club channel.
The Distribution Play
The Costco debut comes as Khloud tracks toward 32,000 retail doors by August 2026 — a distribution footprint that reflects the aggressive velocity targets typical of celebrity-adjacent better-for-you snack brands competing for shelf space against established players in the protein-snack segment. The brand's lineup spans Protein Popcorn and Protein Chips, both positioned on a clean-label platform that avoids seed oils, GMOs, and gluten.
The warehouse club channel is a meaningful validation step for emerging snack brands. Costco's high basket size and bulk-buying shopper skew create a natural fit for a value-format rollout, allowing Khloud to drive trial at scale while reinforcing an everyday-use positioning — what the brand describes as snacking for "busy lifestyles without trade-offs." At $9.89 for 12oz, the unit economics give shoppers a per-ounce price advantage over conventional retail pack sizes, a standard warehouse-channel lever for building household penetration.
Protein Snack Context
The broader better-for-you snack segment continues to attract significant retail attention. Protein-forward formats — popcorn, chips, and puffs — have become one of the fastest-moving sub-categories in the snack aisle as operators and retailers respond to sustained consumer demand for higher-protein, cleaner-ingredient options. Each serving of Khloud's White Cheddar Protein Popcorn delivers 7 grams of protein from 100% real cheddar cheese, positioning it squarely within the macro-friendly snack tier that has drawn foodservice and retail operators to invest in new formats and limited-time offerings.
For foodservice buyers and contract feeders tracking snack procurement trends, the warehouse club launch is a notable distribution signal. Club-channel placement often precedes broader foodservice and vending penetration as brands build volume and negotiate co-packing efficiencies. The Costco-exclusive 12oz SKU is available for a limited time at participating California locations, suggesting the brand is treating this as a market-test phase before any potential national club expansion.
Khloud has not disclosed AUV-equivalent velocity data or named co-manufacturing partners, but the pace of door growth — from launch to a projected 32,000 locations — underscores the distribution leverage that celebrity co-founder equity can generate in the early stages of a CPG buildout.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
