RadioShack Not Only Still Exists, It Sells Suspiciously Cheap SD Cards
RadioShack, once a ubiquitous American electronics store, filed for bankruptcy and shuttered all of its brick and mortar US locations way back in 2017. For most Americans, the brand appeared to die but that isn’t entirely true: it shifted its efforts online where it now sells some suspiciously cheap SD cards emblazoned with the company’s branding.
The electronics retailer has changed hands multiple times since its collapse in the 2010s which saw it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 and filing for bankruptcy two years later. The company was acquired by Retail Ecommerce Ventures in 2020 and shifted to e-commerce. It was then acquired again by Unicomer Group, based in El Salvador, in 2023. Curiously, while RadioShack failed to hold on to a retail presence in North America, Unicomer maintains physical stores in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
That catches things up to 2025 and explains how the company is still operating and while it has expanded its offerings, many of the products that at one time could only be found at RadioShack are still listed: adapters, cables, connectors, and converters are all still front-and-center, which is sure to be a bit of a nostalgia hit for many.
RadioShack reached out to PetaPixel last week with a notice that it had a full line of “best-selling storage and memory products” that were available both at RadioShack.com and Amazon — two brands that 90s kids would never think would be mentioned in the same sentence.
While there are several flash drives available, photographers are likely only interested in the SD options, of which RadioShack has five microSD cards available and all of them are incredibly cheap. At the bottom of the list is a $6 32GB microSD HC card. “HC” stands for “high capacity” and is an older generation card that can’t have more than 32GB capacity, meaning this little storage solution is as big as that format can handle. XC, which the other four cards RadioShack offers, stands for X-Treme capacity and can handle significantly more data.
On that note, the other two plain black memory cards in this category are only noted as being U1 and Class 10 as well as the XC type. Class 10 is basically meaningless at this point since it just means the cards can hit at least 10 MB/s write speeds — that’s not very fast. U1 basically means the same thing: it only promises 10 MB/s speeds. This is not good enough for almost any application of a modern photographer. The 64GB and 128GB options will cost $9 and $13, respectively.
“With its Class 10 rating, you can enjoy smooth, uninterrupted recording and playback of Full HD videos. This makes it an excellent choice for action cameras, drones, and other high-performance devices. Plus, the included SD adapter provides added convenience, allowing you to easily transfer files between your devices,” RadioShack says. Sure, that’s probably true, but shooting only HD video is a relative rarity.
Moving on to the other two memory cards, RadioShack promises a bit more performance for a few dollars more — plus they come with snazzier colors. These red and black cards are available in 64GB and 128GB configurations and are significantly faster with a V30 rating. That rating promises 30 MB/s write speeds and is joined by RadioShack’s “Pro” branding as a result. These cards are probably “fine” for what they are and might even be capable of handling 4K video recordings from some lower bit rate cameras found in some drones and action cameras. It’s hard to argue with the prices too: $11 and $19 for the 64GB and 128GB cards, respectively.
RadioShack isn’t one of PetaPixel‘s recommendations for memory, so caution is warranted. If nothing else, the cards just serve as a little trip back memory lane for photographers who remember the 1990s fondly.
Image credits: RadioShack
