Does this 淘 just mean 买？ The little text I'm listening to has a poetic style. So I presume this is a poetic useage of 淘。Think it just means 'buy'. Is that right?

。。, 有很多特色的小商品店，可以淘一些特产带回家。Something like 'can fish up a few souvenirs to take home.'？？
It is a modern slang for 买.
淘 comes from 淘宝网 (Taobao), a very popular Chinese online shopping site, similar to eBay or Amazon. Although its name does literally mean &quot;searching for treasure website&quot;, where 淘 means &quot;searching&quot;, 淘 has become a verb that first meant &quot;to buy on Taobao&quot;, &quot;to buy online&quot;, and then to mean &quot;buy&quot; in general. This is similar to how &quot;google&quot; has become a verb meaning &quot;to search online&quot;.
Since it's new slang, you won't find dictionaries attesting to this usage, but if you search for &quot;淘东西&quot; you'll find plenty of examples, such as this:

想在55淘东西要睁大了慧眼喔~跟风需谨慎
(where 55 refers to 55bbs.com, a different shopping site to Taobao)

or this:

可以海淘东西到新西兰吗？
(where 海淘 means &quot;to buy overseas&quot;)