Everyone has different needs when becoming a member of a gym so its important to do a walk-thru and determine your own fitness goals. I won't address parking, business practices, or personnel since many others have done this ( accurately and inaccurately). If you wanna power build or body build... eh, maybe its not the best equipped.
First, do you want a fitness centre or a traditional gym? Theres a difference. And there really aren't many "gyms" in NC let alone Charlotte. The place is nice, spacious, and houses upper tier equipment. But layout is a head scratcher. Try doing squats and quad-extensions upstairs, then stumbling and wobbling down a flight of steps to finish up on the other leg equipment downstairs, lol. No pec-deck... really? Not enough accessories for cable machines... are they too expensive? And as far as environment, try working out in Time Square... The media assault at Golds Epicenter can be quite intrusive when your trying to concentrate... News shows, music videos, Talk shows etc... man, cut that shit out. Overall, its a good gym but marketing folks tend to be disconnected when determining what people want out of a gym (I'm not just talking about what "I" want). "This" Golds has a little bit of everything so I would say that, in practice, they're more of a fitness centre.