Back when I started training, there was a store in my hometown (Spartanburg, SC) that stocked a few brands and colors of uniforms - both dogi and dobak. A lot of students went there to buy stuff, especially if they couldn't get what they wanted at their school (I bought my first judo gi and my first black gi there). I miss that place.Every medium to heavyweight gi I’ve seen has a drawstring instead of elastic. The free with signup lightweight gis are typically elastic.
Heavier gis don’t use elastic because the thickness of the material would make an elastic waistband very uncomfortable.
For relatively inexpensive and decent quality, look into Century. Their medium and heavyweight gis are pretty popular. They last a while too. Most people I train with wear Century and KI. Century medium weight and KI heavyweight. I got a heavyweight KI gi from my teacher (for a few bucks more) when I signed up at my dojo. It’s pretty heavy and doesn’t fit me right. People love them though.
Be prepared to go through the whole shipping several brands and sizes back and forth merry-go-round until you find what you like. A lot of people do, and that’s not limited to bigger people. Everyone’ shaped differently and no one fits into every piece of clothing they try on. Gis aren’t any different. It sucks there’s no local stores that have racks of different brands and sizes like a Men’s Warehouse for gis.