Foursquare Checkin Data Forms a Pareto of Where People Shopped

In this edition of Pareto in the Wild, we look at which venues had the most Foursquare Check-ins on the Black Friday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Black Friday.

The data, obtained by AdAge represent just a fraction of shopping activity on Black Friday 2010; in all likelihood, most people that usually check-in via Foursquare probably shopped online that day instead of at a brick-and-mortar retailer.

In any event, below are the brands that had the most check-ins via Foursquare:

As you can see, the top 80% of check-in activity were concentrated in the top five brands: Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, and Apple. Below is another picture showing the concentration by percentage:

Yes, Pareto strikes again, separating the trivial many brands from the vital few brands. Incidentally, no check-in data was obtained for Cyber Monday 2010.