I frequent the community board at the Disney site. They are forever having exchanges. This is similiar to the secret santa, but not exactly. They have specfic things, t-shirt exchange, beach towel exchange, mug exchange etc.. Basically you sign up, they send you a name, and you send the specific item to that person.I have done a few exchanges. My favorite is the t-shirt exchange, as I wear t-shirts all the time. Also it is the easiest thing to buy as I live in Va Beach, you can get t-shirts with Va Beach on it, at almost any store, at the mall, Walmart, Kmart etc..Usually I throw a few extra small things in as well.
With the t-shirt exchange they want it to say the state or city or if sport team from your city etc..ANyways, I get my person to send to , and he is a size 4X. Now, I am in no way putting this person down because of his size. BUT...most places that sell t-shirts like this do not sell 4X size. I mean I know Kmart and the stores in the mall that sell Va Beach t-shirts do not sell this size.
I e-mailed the girl who does the exchange and told her my concerns. She went on to say she had that mans name last yr, and she had a hard time as well. But, she went to one of those places where they make the t-shirt(decal thing) and found it there. She said she had to look and callmany places...
Ok, maybe Im rude, or maybe Im lazy, but I do not want to go out of my way to track down a store to that sells 4X Va Beach shirts. I did tell her I was going down to the boardwalk tonight as they have tons of gift shops and such, and I will do my best to see if I could find one. That with the price of gas I will not be driving all over town to find this speciality item.
I thought this would be such an easy exchange, I would go over to Kmart, get a tshirt, and a few other little things, put it all together and mail it.
Again, I am in no way making fun of this person. I just think it is asking too much to track down a 4X shirt.
What do you all think?

By Trina~moderator on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 04:30 pm:

I think that's the risk you take when you sign up for these exchanges. You never know what you're going to get. It wouldn't be fair to exclude people due to their size. How much time do you have? Perhaps you could find something online. Then you wouldn't have to drive all over the place looking. Good luck!

By Melanie on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 05:03 pm:

I agree. While I would be initially annoyed with the inconvenience factor, ultimately I would have to acknowledge that I did sign up for it and should have been aware that I could get someone with a harder size to find. Hopefully your search will be smoother than you are anticipating. Good luck!

By Jackie on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 05:30 pm:

I know there is always a risk. I guess it has always been easy for me to send somebody a t-shirt. I agree, I dont think somebody should be excluded because of their size.

By Truestori on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 05:34 pm:

Jackie,

I would have to agree with Trina and Melanie.
You just never know what person you will be paired up with. Think of it this way, its probably hard for him to find shirts, so maybe he was hoping that his pal could find one in their neck of the woods. A Big and Tall section at a store should carry his size, though. I work with a guy who wears a 4x and honestly he is not over weight, just a tall big guy!

By Jackie on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 07:53 pm:

Ok, alls well.... I went down to the boardwalk, and the first giftshop I went into I found a shirt. Well I had to get a plain t-shirt, which they had only a couple 4X shirts, and I got a decal and it only cost 12.99$.

By Melanie on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 08:10 pm:

Wonderful...I am glad it worked out so easily.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 08:10 pm:

I think I would be embarrassed to sign up to receive t-shirts in that size...but that's just completely JMHO.

By Kaye on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 09:09 pm:

My hubby is a 3X. I don't think he would be embarrassed to sign up for that size. It is who he is. There isn't much he can do about it. He is a very tall man with very broad shoulders. I met him at his very skinnest, he biked 3 hours a day and he still wore a 2x. It is a pain finding souvenier shirts for him. Most places carry 2x, but larger is hard to find.

Glad you found something for him. It is hard to do those exchanges, someone always gets slighted and it hardly works out fair.

By Mrsheidi on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - 10:06 pm:

If it were me, a woman.

By Karen~admin on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 07:29 am:

I used to date a very big guy who wore a 2X or 3X - big biker type guy. I know he certainly wasn't ashamed of his size. LOL

By Kim on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 07:36 am:

Men don't care! Most anyway. I wouldn't have a problem with having to shop for his size. But that's just me.

By Dandjmom on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 08:09 am:

Jackie,

I don't think will be that difficult to find, beings though VA Beach is a tourist area. I mean I live in Washington, DC have friends doesn't hat way in Suffix, and VAB is usually one of the places and Williamsburg that we go too. I too love t-shirts so I usually bring back a few to sleep in and the larger sizes accommidiate that easily. The stores and vendors are actually carrying them in such larger sizes( new trend with the kids these days) now that I actually have a hard time trying to find something smallert then a 2xxl at times.

No I don't feel that no one should be put out of there way to track down a t-shirt. but also at the same time you never know when you commit to these type of things what it's going to be like.

Good Luck in your search. I'll see if I can find a place in that area that sells what you need.

By Jackie on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - 08:16 am:

I posted above, I did find a t-shirt down by the boardwalk. The worker in the store stated the preprinted t-shirts only went to 2X. They had a section of plain t-shirts in various colors, that I could buy and get a decal printed on it. Of all the colors, I only found the black t-shirt to have the 4x size and there were only a couple of them left.So I picked out a decal and had it put it on it.