With some people already camping out in front of retail stores for Black Friday, we wondered what social media could tell us about this annual shopping frenzy. We look to Foursquare, the leader of all things relating to the social media check-in – and what we found was last year’s Black Friday report!

It would appear that if you’re willing to sacrifice your beauty sleep and shop between the hours of 12:00AM and 8:00AM, you will avoid much of retail carnage that will ensue by mid-day.

Leading the list of retail giants last year was Target, Best Buy, Wally World, and Toys’R’Us. So if one of the big four has the deal you’re looking for, you might want to consider wearing protective gear.

Most fascinating is the line graph showing retail check-ins per day for the previous year – which shows a notable swell each weekend and spikes on Black Friday and Christmas Eve.

So, do you have any tips for Black Friday or Cyber Monday? If so, please comment below!