Contrary to rumors circulating the peninsula, Radio Shack stores in Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta aren't shutting down.

Local and national news stations have been reporting closures of up to 1,100 Radio Shack stores nationwide.

Russell Brackett, franchise owner of the Radio Shack stores in Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta, said he won't be closing anytime soon. “To my knowledge, none of the franchise (privately owned) Radio Shack stores are closing.”

Brackett said it's a market correction. “The under-performing ones, the ones that aren't meeting expectations, are being weeded out.”

According to Brackett, around three years ago Radio Shack closed 500 stores, one of them in Bath. “Now they're talking upwards of 1,100, which would bring them down to around 4,000.”

And the Radio Shack Corporation isn't going anywhere anytime soon. “They’ve just started developing the Asian market; they've already developed a lot in the Middle East and they're doing a lot in South and Central America.”

Brackett said it's a growing effort. “All they're trying to do is re-focus where their efforts are. They're trying to get rid of stores where there are several stores in a square mile.”

In a memo sent to all Radio Shack franchise stores around the world, CEO Joe Magnacca stated that Radio Shack had taken a step to “consolidate a number of under-performing stores in the coming year.”

According to the memo, there are 900 dealer franchise locations around the globe and 4,000 retail locations in the United States. The memo listed five pillars of Radio Shack's “turnaround strategy.” They included “repositioning the brand; revamping the product assortment; reinvigorating the stores; operational efficiency and financial flexibility.”

“Radio Shack Corporation has no overhead in the franchise stores other than just selling their product,” Brackett said. “In company owned stores they have to cover rent, payroll, utilities, taxes, insurance and so on. So it's more conducive for them to have franchise stores than corporate owned ones.”

Brackett said Radio Shack Corporation won't shut down one of its franchises unless they are not honoring the contract they signed. “We have a contract. We have to abide by their rules concerning signage and logos have to be up to their standards.”

Asked why Brackett thinks his store does so well, he was quick to reply. “I can give you a myriad of answers to that. We basically have the same product the bigger stores do. The price is extremely comparable, and in many cases, below. And my guys are all extremely up on what's going on with everything we sell.”

And then there's the small town service they supply. “When you buy a set here we take it to your house, we set it up, and it's running when we leave. If you have issues with it, we'll come help you troubleshoot that. You're not going to get that kind of service from a big name store.”

“That's what this store is built on — service. We specialize in servicing what we sell.”

There are only 12 or 15 Radio Shack franchises in Maine, and Brackett owns two of them. He said that the Damariscotta Radio Shack in the Elm Street Plaza is a lot smaller than the Boothbay Harbor one, but it covers a bigger geographic area. And for those of us who frequent the stores and have experienced their down home service, it's good to know we're not losing them.

Brackett said that since talk of possible shutdowns was aired on local news stations he's been inundated with calls. “As far as I'm concerned we're healthy and we're not going anywhere.”

In closing Brackett wanted to pay tribute to his employees. “If they didn't have a circuit boards in their heads they couldn't breathe straight.”