I ran across this article yesterday on Mashable and I thought it was pretty interesting. These graphics represent the percentage of check-ins on Foursquare that each of the major retailers saw on Black Friday. Granted this is only Foursquare, and Gowalla, Brightkite, nor any of the other geo-social apps are represented, but I think it’s still a pretty good indication…
Am I the only one surprised that Target was so far ahead of Wal-Mart? I guess I just assumed since Wal-Mart had a larger operation that they would naturally see more shoppers, but apparently that wasn’t the case on Black Friday…
I think, based on the consensus from my family of shoppers, Wal-Mart is either intimidating (everyone will be at Wal-Mart assumption) or non-tempting (Wal-Mart is known to always have low prices, and usually not the best quality). I didn’t step into a Wal-Mart on Friday, but my shopping preferences are done online, so maybe that affected some things as well. But it is interesting the percentages aren’t really close – the Mashable article bar graph showed about 5,000 more check-ins for Target than Wal-Mart – I find it harder to believe that Toys “R” Us is still in the top 67% of check-ins, especially since places like Wal-Mart and Target are the leaders.
For me personally, I would much rather go to Target than Wal-Mart. I was kind of shocked to see Apple over Macy’s. I figured Macy’s had way more stores out there than Apple. I guess most people that go to Apple are on Foursquare though. I think Arkansas is the only state that doesn’t have a Macy’s.