Even as a teenager, Gary Cino had an eye for a bargain, turning dollars into profits at Southern California swap meets.

As an adult, Cino became one of the nation's pioneering deep-discount retailers.

He earned that reputation – and his personal fortune – through his chain of 98 Cent Clearance Centers, launched in North Highlands two decades ago. He left his dollar-store empire in 1998, selling to Dollar Tree Stores Inc. and became a Granite Bay private developer.

Now, he's back with a new store that takes the dollar-store concept to a new price point. WiseBuys, which Cino opened last week in Roseville at the intersection of Douglas and Harding boulevards, offers a massive inventory, where nothing is priced higher than $9.98.

"Some people call us a dollar store on steroids, but we're actually more of an 'inflation-adjusted' store," says Cino, who says expanding beyond 98 cents allows him to sell a broader base of merchandise.

Over the next five years, Cino hopes to open 12 to 15 WiseBuys stores between Fresno and Redding.

The 53-year-old entrepreneur is all too aware he's getting back into the deep-discount game amid stiff competition, including high-profile discounters such as Big Lots and Tuesday Morning, membership warehouse outlets such as Sam's Club and Costco and even grocery discount chains like Save Mart.

But he's confident the public appetite for deep discounts, particularly in a tightened economy, will help launch another retailing empire.

"Not everybody understands the virtues of a single price point or a maximum price point," Cino said.

His 42,000-square-foot WiseBuys store in Roseville is neatly packed with merchandise, including school supplies, housewares, clothing, sunglasses, sporting goods, jewelry, pet supplies, holiday decorations and tons of food and beverages.

Cino got his start as a 13-year-old going to weekend swap meets about two miles from his parents' home in La Mirada in Los Angeles County.

"I'd get my Radio Flyer wagon and go down there and look for merchandise that was being sold too cheap, like a bike or a watch or clock radio," Cino recalled. "I'd have maybe 10 or 20 dollars in my pocket."

Cino often showed up early and waited for sellers pulling up in their cars. When they popped the trunk, he'd be ready to pounce. If he saw something of value, say a bicycle in fair condition, Cino made an offer.

"If (the seller) said $15 or $12, I'd say, 'Will you take $10?' and I'd have a $10 bill in my hand."

More often than not, the approach worked, and Cino would haul the merchandise "back to my little 10-by-10 booth" and resell it for a profit. For the teenager, it proved "more profitable than mowing lawns," Cino said.

By his 20s, Cino was deeply involved in the wholesale liquidation business, supplying swap meets and discount stores with merchandise of all kinds. He built up a huge network of contacts among liquidators, distributors, wholesalers and retailers.

One of those was David Gold, who started the 99 Cents Only discount stores in Southern California in 1982.

Impressed by Gold's success, Cino moved to Northern California and opened his own version of the less-than-a-buck store in the mid-1980s. The first 98 Cent Clearance Center, in North Highlands, quickly posted annual sales of $1 million – an astronomical number for a 2,800-square-foot store selling items at such low prices.

By the time Cino handed 98 Cent Clearance Centers off to Dollar Tree in 1998, there were 66 stores operating in California and Nevada.

In the last decade, Cino focused on equity investments, forming Granite Bay Ventures, which develops shopping centers and office complexes. Last year, he began pondering the idea of a new deep-discount store – WiseBuys – that would take in a bigger loop of merchandise.

Whether it's a watch or a can of chicken soup, Cino said customers always ask the same question: "How can you sell this at that price?"

Cino said it comes down to capitalizing on circumstances. Close-outs, overstocks, changes in labels or package sizes are the engines that drive the deep-discount retailing sector. And over 40 years, Cino said he has built up an enormous network of merchandise-liquidation contacts.

Take cereal, for example. Rising corn prices have prompted some cereal makers to reduce the size of boxes of corn-based cereals. If a standard store-shelf box goes from 18 ounces to 14 ounces, the cereal producer is stuck with tons of product no longer destined for conventional store shelves.

But WiseBuys will gladly buy up the 18-ounce boxes of cereal, then resell them at a deeply reduced price.

Cino stressed that WiseBuys does not sell flawed or expired products, only those that no longer have a home on retail shelves.

Cino's timing appears fortunate, as more U.S. consumers are turning to discount food and retail stores in the economic downturn.

"People are struggling, and I'm glad we can help them save some money," he said.

Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.