The unfolding Silicon Valley swindle has caused an issue in the toy department.
Growing experiential toy retailer CAMP says that its assets were tied up in Silicon Valley Bank, the institution currently at the center of the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history.
“Unfortunately, we had most of our company’s cash assets at a bank that just collapsed. I’m sure you’ve heard the news,” said CAMP co-founder Ben Kaufman in an email to customers.
CAMP, which currently operates nine stores in six states and has plans to open more this year, offered customers 40% off everything using code BANKRUN on Friday. While the code was offered, Kaufman tweeted that shoppers could still pay full price if they’d like to as the retailer scrambled to generate positive cash flow. As of this morning, CAMP is offering the same promotion using code ILOVECAMP.
On Friday afternoon, Kaufman followed up with a tweet stating that traffic to the CAMP website was 35 times what it typically reaches during peak business. By 9:15 p.m., he said that the company broke its previous sales record, set back in December.
“By far our biggest day in CAMP history. You have all made today a lot better for our team who have been fighting for this (really hard to build) brand every day for 4.5 years,” he tweeted. “‘Success at a startup is being alive tomorrow lots of days in a row’ — See you all tomorrow.”
Silicon Valley Bank held assets worth approximately $209 billion and faced a “bank run” this week following news that it was selling securities. Faced with a plunging stock price and mass withdrawals, the bank was seized by Federal regulators on Friday.
Thus far, the only other toy-adjacent company to publicly report potential losses tied to the bank is Roblox. The metaverse giant said in an SEC filing that 5% of its $3 billion in cash and securities was held at Silicon Valley Bank. The company expects no impact on its operations.
The Toy Book has reached out to CAMP for additional details on its status and will be watching for any additional toy industry fallout.
