America's Research Group (ARG) has conducted a Christmas shopping survey that concluded shoppers want bigger bargains and are willing to wait for them.

The survey of 800 adults, conducted over the Dec. 2-3 weekend, found of those shoppers (32.9%) who were waiting to finish before Dec. 24, 81.6% said they are waiting to get more gifts on sale at 50% off. This compared to 66.2% in both 2005 and in 2004 and 62.2% in 2002. ARG said the “big shopping push” in 2006 would occur after Dec. 15, as 37.7% of consumers don't expect to finish shopping until Dec. 20.

Looking at the most recent data, ARG founder and CEO C. Britt Beemer emphasized that the 2006 Christmas shopper is the biggest bargain-hunter he has seen in 20 years of consumer research on Christmas sales. “I've never seen such bargain-driven shoppers,” he said. Based on data from ARG's first Christmas shopping survey in mid-November, Beemer predicted that “sales should increase at a 3.1% level this year.”

Wal-Mart was the No. 1 store on shoppers' lists last weekend, ARG found, with 43.1% going there, but JC Penney had the best gains over last year to 28.1% in 2006 from only 16.6% in 2005.

Gift cards proved to be a hot gift item this year, with 42.1% of consumers having already purchased them and another 20% planning to before Christmas. In 2005, only 24.8% had bought gift cards by this time, with 17.5% expecting to buy them before Christmas.