Franklin Square — Local services in Gastonia

Franklin Square shopping center has a few good anchor stores and a few good restaurants, but seems to have trouble keeping all it's space occupied. There are several stores empty( some have been for years). Others seem to come and go in a matter of weeks or a few months. It has 4 phases. Each phase has it's own anchor stores. The major ones would be Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's home improvement, Sam's Club, Ashley Home Furnishings, Toys "R" Us. These are followed by a number of smaller anchors like Michael's, Dollar Tree, Party City, Pier 1 Imports, Kohl's, Old Navy, and several others. It also has a good mix of food, Chili's, Logan's, Shane's Rib Shack, and many other options including fast food. There's also a Pep Boys and Discount Tire for auto needs and a Movie theater, as well as a Gold's gym. Lots of other stores, worth a look if you're in the...

Stores are nice, but that traffic congestion, lack of adequate parking for many stores, and no stop signs where needed. You'll get your car whacked if you're not extra diligent. Espet in phase 2 (Sam's/Lowe's/Chic-Fil-a) Chick-fil-a tries, they have entrances and exits clearly and overly well marked. But watch out at the entrance and exit on to Franklin in phase 2. It's known as the intersection of death for a reason. Incoming traffic has right of way, but out going isn't clearly marked. You're just supposed to "know". Not good. There's only 1 stop sign in front of Lowe's. On the right side of 2 outbound lanes. Lord forbid if there's an SUV, large truck or bus there. A+ on Shopping, C on parking. F- on...

The employees here are super knowledgeable and even though the store is much smaller than the one I was accustomed to in Charlotte, they make up for it in customer service. Big shouts out to Will in doors and Maura in appliances. Maura spent over 40 minutes on hold to assist us with the vendor for our refrigerator, and even though the result was not what I wanted (the fridge I ordered and paid for in June was backordered until October with absolutely no warning from LG whatsoever 🤯😡) because of her and Will, plus the fact Maura referred us to an appliance store 30 mintues away, where we did acquire a refrigerator, we look forward to enjoying cold food in our new home in...