FRANKLIN—Drivers passing Farm Fresh on Friday morning probably did a double-take, hit the brakes and detoured into the parking lot when they saw the price the store was advertising for gas.

But then, a price of $3.29 per gallon would get anyone’s attention.

The store at 1459 Armory Drive was running a one-day special on gas. It’s a promotion that, according to employees, is run an average of four to six times a year.

Judging by the line of cars snaking through the parking lot Friday afternoon, it’s a promotion that’s wildly popular.

“I think it’s a swell idea,” said Walter Elliott of Murfreesboro, N.C. When asked if he had filled the tank of his Lincoln Town Car, Elliott nodded and laughed. “Yes I did. Yes I did,” he said.

The queue extended to as many as 17 cars at one point on Friday afternoon. Traffic cones were placed in key locations, and Farm Fresh employees were directing the line, which reportedly stretched, at times, through the parking lot almost to Armory Drive.

Rose Boone of Franklin was in line to fill up her Ford Escape. Gas prices, she said “are too high, they need to come down. It’s crazy.

“You see an opportunity like this, you have to take it.”

Franklin resident Chyerl Falls, behind the wheel of a Dodge Ram 1500, was taking full advantage of that opportunity.

“I filled my car up here earlier,” she said. “I’ve got gas cans in the back to fill up too.”

Scot Allen, also of Franklin, had a slightly different tack on the situation.

“Honestly, I think (the price of gas) is pretty realistic,” Allen said from his Ford F-150. “Your simple thoughts of supply and demand … it could be a whole hell of a lot worse.”

Doug and Shirley Flythe drove all the way from Conway, N.C., when they saw an advertisement in their newspaper on Friday morning.

“We came here to save a dollar — seven dollars,” Shirley Flythe exclaimed. “Now we’re going to go in the store and save some more.”

Nearby, George Fowler, a Suffolk resident who works in Franklin, emerged from the store and was placing groceries into his truck.

“I’d like to have some of that cheap gas,” Fowler said, “but I didn’t want to stay in line for it.”