One day in 1984, when crowds poured into Los Angeles for the Summer Olympics, David Gold and Thomas Hale made a $185,000 buy that would launch their 99 Cents Only Stores into the mainstream and foreshadow the future of their quirky off-priced outlets.

Gold and Hale, president and vice president of 99 Cents Only Stores, had bought 500,000 authentic Olympic souvenir hats at a special low price--37 cents each--days before the games commenced.

They decided to sell the half million hats for 99 cents apiece when other stores listed them at $8 each. As excitement surrounding the Olympic Games grew, one television station after another broadcast the special on Olympic hats. Gold and Hale, with their three small stores, were overwhelmed.

"All of a sudden, our phone started ringing and didn't stop for two weeks," said Hale. "We had to hire security guards to hold people back. Before I could take van loads of the hats into the store, they were sold; they never made it to the counter. I had never seen anything like it in all my years in retailing."

Since then, Vernon-based 99 Cents Only Stores has burgeoned into a 24-store chain. "Each store we've opened . . . has done better than the next," Hale said.

While other Southern California businesses are feeling the brunt of the weak economy--particularly in their pre-holiday sales--Gold and Hale are finding money-tight consumers flocking to their stores in search of food products and health and beauty supplies that sell for less than a dollar apiece.

At a time when many businesses are being forced to scale back, Gold and Hale plan to open two more 99 Cents Only Stores by spring in Huntington Park and Lawndale. Additional openings are being considered for late 1992, Hale said.

Their strategy, Hale explained, is to buy brand-name products and close-out items from suppliers and sell them at one price--99 cents. According to their advertising, they do this from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. nine days a week.

"We don't buy something just because it's cheap," Hale said. "We try to buy things that customers recognize and would use. The customer has to walk in and immediately identify a product and say, 'Wow.' If we don't get that reaction, then we don't get the repeat on the customer."