CPG Reads: Start with the member, not the SKU + Sweets & Snacks 2026: the trends that stood out
👉 The Retailer Storytelling Corner
Selling-in to Costco? Start with the Member, Not the SKU
Many CPG teams tell us the same thing: selling into Costco is different because it doesn’t evaluate items through traditional category-first logic. Its decision-making comes back to two questions: Is this better for our members than what we carry today? And does it fit the Costco model?
The most common challenge we see isn’t weak products or missing data. It’s starting from a self-serving place. Teams lead with “What is this product?” when the buyer is expecting “Why does this belong here?” Here’s a potential solve: focus on what consumers need, then show why solving that need works at Costco specifically. (And, ensure your product is optimized for Costco’s warehousing model)
Let’s unpack this: The “before” slide below is a typical example. The product information is accurate, but the slide answers the wrong question. It describes the SKU instead of making the case for why Costco’s members need it.
The Before: (item and feature driven)
The After: Align your Item with Consumer Needs and Costco’s Member Value Prop
Same product, different logic. The after slide starts with a clear value proposition (what gap this fills for members), grounds the case in consumer behavior (what parents are doing and where current options fall short), and makes the Costco case explicit: why this item is incremental, how it fits the member profile, and why it deserves space relative to what’s already on shelf.
📖 Read more: The article walks through the thinking in more detail. [Costco Doesn’t Buy Products. It Buys Reasons.]
10 Trends from Sweets & Snacks 2026
L.E.K. Consulting’s Anshul Gupta and Maria Steingoltz published a sharp recap of this year’s Sweets & Snacks Expo (first time in Vegas). They identified 10 trends worth knowing. A few that stood out to us:
Sweets are getting theatrical. E.g., candy sardines in pull-tab tins and cotton candy sliced like birthday cake. Formats designed to be experienced and shared, not just eaten.
Matcha might be the next Dubai chocolate. Dubai chocolate still had presence on the floor, but the energy felt like it peaked. Matcha kept showing up in unexpected places. A friend who attended said the same thing.
Creatine is leaving the gym. It’s showing up in everyday snacking formats now, targeting satiety, active lifestyles, and GLP-1 users.
The full article covers all 10, and many interesting ones. Take a look, and this may be worth bookmarking.
📖 Read more: L.E.K. Consulting’s Anshul Gupta and Maria Steingoltz on 10 takeaways from Sweets & Snacks 2026.
From TikTok recipe to Target shelf: What Yough got right
We like this one because Yough seems to have found the real barrier in frozen pizza: people still want the occasion, but they want fewer reasons to feel bad about it.
Max Baumann shares how a Greek yogurt and flour recipe kept showing up on TikTok, a frozen pizza built on a four-ingredient crust, and now a rollout into nearly 2,000 Target stores. The product is easy to understand: yogurt, wheat, yeast, salt, and more than 20g of protein.
But the useful part isn’t the TikTok origin story. It’s what Yough refused to do.
A lot of “healthy” frozen pizza has trained shoppers to compromise: swap the carb, swap the gluten, swap the crust, and accept something that almost feels like pizza. Yough kept the pizza cues intact: wheat, breadiness, real mozzarella, and a product that still feels like the thing people came for.
Lesson for CPG teams: In mature categories, the opportunity is not always a new occasion or a dramatic format change. Sometimes it’s finding what made shoppers hesitate, then making the familiar occasion easier to come back to.
👉 Read more: Max Baumann on how Yough turned a Greek-yogurt pizza recipe into a national Target rollout.
While you’re here
Yougurt is getting a lot more snackable. Yasso and Clio are good examples of dairy moving beyond the tub: one into frozen high-protein pints, the other into refrigerated bars. Worth a skim if you’re tracking where BFY dessert is going on the shelf. [Read more]
Packaging is becoming the product claim in premium water. WaterOuai (by Supergoop! founder Holly Thag) and Loonen are leading with what their packaging doesn’t contain: no microplastics, no PFAS, no BPA. Worth watching if you’re tracking where clean label is headed. [Read more]
What we are listening to:
🎙️ When the category story moves the buyer, not the product. Rohan Oza (brand builder behind Vitamin Water, Poppi, and Vita Coco) shares how Poppi cracked Walmart and Target, on a bigger story: “modern soda for tomorrow’s generation.” [Jump to the 40-minute mark]
🎙️ Before your next Kroger meeting, try this. Brian Downey, (Senior Director at Kroger Precision Marketing) shares a useful gut check: five questions about your brand’s shelf story worth asking before you walk in. [Jump to the 28-minute mark]
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