SHOPTALK : Those Seeking Bunnies Can Find a Sweet Deal : Hollow or solid, local discount stores have plenty of the chocolate Easter favorite, as well as variations on the theme.

Christmas has its trees. Valentine’s Day has its hearts. St. Patrick’s Day has its green beer. And Easter has its . . . eggs and bunnies and candy and baskets.

Many of you, no doubt, have already purchased your stash of the aforementioned Easter items. But if you haven’t, you’ve got just three shopping days left to do so. Fortunately, there are some well-stocked stores that should have just what you’re looking for. The selections may be picked over pretty well by now, but a broken chocolate bunny is better than no bunny at all.

It’s no secret that convenience stores, supermarkets and various discount chains are likely to have their aisles overflowing with holiday chocolates and Easter baskets.

We looked around last week and were particularly impressed with what we found at the Sav-On in Camarillo, the Ben Franklin store in Ojai (which had a lot of make-your-own basket supplies), K mart in Santa Paula (which had, probably, the largest Easter candy selection of any of the stores) and Thrifty near the Buenaventura Mall.

Before we go any further, we should point out that two candy manufacturers, Frankford and Palmer, produce the majority of Easter chocolates sold at local stores. Russell Stover, Hershey, M & M / Mars and other popular chocolate makers have gotten in on the action too.

We’ll begin with Frankford chocolate bunnies.

The 2 1/4-ounce hollow bunny was priced at $1.17 at K mart and $1.19 at Ben Franklin. The 4 1/2-ounce hollow bunny was $1.97 at K mart, $2.19 at Ben Franklin. And the eight-ounce hollow bunny was $2.97 at K mart, $3.39 Ben Franklin.

K mart also had a solid half-pound Frankford Bunny for 99 cents, a Frankford solid chocolate greeting card (1.75 ounces) for $1.17, a 12-ounce Peter Rabbit (hollow) for $4.99 and a Baseball Buddy chocolate rabbit with a soft baseball included in the package for $2.57.

Moving on to the Palmer candies, we discovered that the chocolate bunnies tend to be somewhat personalized--many of them have girl names or boy names, and some are doing an activity, like riding a motorcycle or bicycle. If you want to appeal to your child’s own personality or hobbies, this may be the way to go.

Like Frankford, the hollow Palmer bunnies come in a variety of sizes. A solid three-ounce Rockin’ Rabbit (peanut-butter-and chocolate-flavored bunny singing into a hand-held microphone) was $1.49 at Thrifty, 88 cents at Sav-On and 99 cents at Ben Franklin. A hollow half-ounce bunny (named Katrina Ballerina or Patti Pom Pom) was $1.99 at Thrifty, $1.50 at K mart.

A hollow Palmer bunny packaged with a children’s book (i.e. “The Fuzzy Duckling”) was selling for $1.97 at K mart, $2.19 at Ben Franklin, $2.49 at Sav-On and $2.99 at Thrifty.

Other candies of note: Sav-On had a stuffed toy rabbit holding a small chocolate carrot for $2.79. Thrifty had a bunny doll holding a Whitman’s Sampler box for $2.99. Ben Franklin had an Easter mug filled with a four-ounce bag of Bunny Money for $4.99. And Sav-On had a five-pack of Three Musketeers bunnies for $1.79.

As for those little marshmallow Peeps that come in yellow for chicks and purple or pink for bunnies, a 15-pack was selling for 99 cents at K mart, $1.19 at Ben Franklin and Sav-On and $1.59 at Thrifty.

Before we hop off, a word or two on Easter baskets. For the most part, the stores we mentioned all had baskets with comparable contents. The lower-priced ones were fairly simple--a few candies, maybe a plastic toy--while the higher-priced ones had plush dolls or elaborate toys.

At K mart, the prices on the baskets ranged from $4.97 to $7.97. At Sav-On, the range was $5.99 to $17.99. And at Thrifty the baskets were going for $4.99 to $8.99. Ben Franklin didn’t have any loaded baskets, but it had all the do-it-yourself parts. A nice empty basket was $6.99.