Ancient Crunch, parent company of the MASA tortilla chip brand, is launching in 55 Costco warehouses across Washington and Oregon — the brand's first club-channel placement and its latest step in a rapid national retail buildout that now spans more than 3,000 doors.
The Pacific Northwest rollout will feature MASA's Original flavor in a larger club-size format. Steven Rofrano, CEO of Ancient Crunch, called Costco a "natural partner" given the retailer's emphasis on quality and value, and said the club format lowers the per-unit cost of what he described as "real food" snacking.
Scale and Velocity
The Costco add comes as MASA claims the No. 1 selling tortilla chip position at select retail partners — a list that already includes Sprouts, Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Target, Erewhon, The Fresh Market, and HEB. The brand is producing more than 400,000 bags per month, a figure that underscores the manufacturing scale needed to service a national club account on top of existing grocery and natural-channel commitments.
For c-store buyers and category managers tracking premium snack trends, MASA's trajectory is a useful benchmark. The brand's three-ingredient formula — organic nixtamalized corn, salt, and 100% grass-fed and finished beef tallow — is positioned squarely in the better-for-you, clean-label segment that has consistently outpaced conventional salty snacks in velocity at upscale grocers. The absence of seed oils is a deliberate formulation choice that has resonated with health-conscious shoppers, and similar no-seed-oil claims are increasingly appearing on snack SKUs angling for premium foodservice and grocery placement.
Channel Implications
Club-channel entry is often a signal of brand maturity: retailers like Costco typically require demonstrated velocity, consistent supply chain performance, and consumer brand awareness before granting shelf space. For MASA, winning 55 Pacific Northwest doors suggests the brand has cleared those bars in the natural and specialty grocery tier and is now moving into higher-volume formats.
For convenience operators evaluating their own salty snack sets, the clean-label tortilla chip segment is one to watch. NACS data has shown that packaged snacks remain among the top inside-sales categories in the channel, and premium, differentiated SKUs have driven outsized margin contribution compared with commodity chips. Operators carrying better-for-you snack programs have reported that shoppers trading up to clean-label options tend to have higher basket sizes — a dynamic worth considering as MASA's retail footprint grows and consumer familiarity with the brand increases across regions.
Ancient Crunch has not announced c-store distribution, but its expansion from natural grocery into mass club suggests a broadening channel strategy that could eventually include convenience.
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.
