It’s an ancient tradition that continues today.

Bargain-hunting. It’s happening all around us, at a host of “off-price” retailers surrounding Diablo Valley College. These alternatives to regular retail stores offer many of the same products at deeply discounted prices. Nearly a dozen of them lie within a four-mile radius of the Pleasant Hill campus.

Seventeen-year-old DVC student Arlene Garcia shops at them to save money for college. The allied health major finds deals on shoes, accessories and cosmetics.

“This was originally $80 and I got it for $19.99 plus tax,” she says, reaching for her designer leather pocketbook.

Nursing major Alaina Aliyev finds similar deals.

“They have a lot of good designer stuff,” she says. “I’ve gotten a couple pairs of jeans from there; I’ve gotten shoes.”

Theeighteen-year-old lives in Walnut Creek, but says Pleasant Hill offers more discount options.

Shopping for a new outfit? Try TJ Maxx or Nordstrom Rack. Want to update your CD collection? Head to Rasputin Music. Need to stock your kitchen? Check out the Grocery Outlet.

These are just a sampling of the many bargain-hunter haunts that blanket this city’s streets.

“We call it a treasure hunt,” Dave, an assistant manager at Ross Dress for Less, says, because customers never know what they’ll find. According to the store’s ads, those treasures are priced at up to 60 percent off of regular retail price. A range common among nearby competitors.

How do they do it? Often by buying up excess product at deep discounts.

It could be a small store that’s going out of business, Teresa Smith of The TJX Companies, Inc. says. Or a large manufacturer or department store with too much product.

TJX owns three local discount chains, TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods. Each works directly with a variety of suppliers, Smith says.

Nordstrom Rack, on the other hand, is the clearance outlet for Nordstrom department stores, getting most of its product from them. The local Rack receives new merchandise daily, and moves it to the sales floor as needed to refill dwindling inventory.

Other enterprises, like Ross Dress for Less, moves new merchandise out immediately.

“We just wait to see what comes in,” Dave says. “Then try to get it to the sales floor as fast as possible.”

And they never know what their daily shipments will bring.

Another potential treasure trove is the consignment store, which sells “gently used” products for private sellers, then splits the proceeds with those sellers.

Each store targets a unique market and selectively buys and sells. They’re not the second-hand stores of old.

Far from it.

Take the Déjà Vu Boutique, with its artful displays and eclectic collection of women’s clothing and accessories, it feels like a trendy boutique of the latest designs. Signage and reduced pricing are the only giveaways.

Nearby, Plato’s Closet specializes in young adult style. According to its website, the store features “fashions that are currently popular with our target age group of 13 – 25 year olds.”

Whether you’re 13 or 30, if tunes are what draw your dollars, check out Rasputin Music, the Bay Area’s oldest independent record store. Here you’ll find a variety of new and used CDs, DVDs, LPs, games and novelty items. And if you’re tired of your own collection, bring it along to sell or trade.

Before heading home, you can stock up on food at the Grocery Outlet just a few blocks away. By purchasing excess inventory and items with discontinued labeling, the store offers an assortment of groceries at reduced price.

So why wait for the holidays to hit the so-called sales when you can find everyday bargains just around the corner? Give it a try and you might just save a few bucks.

Because sometimes tradition is a good thing.