Okay, so I have to admit that I’m one of those people whose household shopping day involves visiting multiple stores for groceries and necessities. Since I know the prices of the regular items we buy, I know who has what for the best price.

But if there is one category that annoys me it’s paper goods. In theory, you know what you need for your house, but then you factor in the amount and size contained in package along with the price and things can get confusing, especially when every brand is on sale.

You’re standing in the aisle like, “Huh? Um. . .”, and wind up taking something home that really doesn’t cut it. That’s why this video is so relatable. It should be a simple task: run to the store to grab paper towels. Again, in theory this sounds easy, right? Wrong.

The guy in this clip went on a store run with a mission to buy paper towels. JJ Hodge shared that he was sent to his local H.E.B. to re-up as his family was cleaning after the holidays. Faced with too many choices at the store, he unwillingly got caught up in a paper towel math exercise.

How many of you have been there? 6 rolls equal 9, or sometimes they equal 12. 2 rolls equal 6, but they are the same price as the 4-roll pack of full sheets. That’s right. Don’t forget the counting conundrum that comes with picking full sheets versus half sheets.

Hodge told the San Antonio Express-News that he was out shopping for so long for this one thing that his wife called to check on him. When the video starts out, he laments about how difficult it is to calculate how much paper towel is actually on a roll and what to buy.

First posted on Instagram, the vid inspired a few laughs before one of Hodge’s friends suggested he post it on Facebook too. From there, it went viral, racking up 11 million views and thousands of empathetic comments to date. There is no question as to why – the roll struggle is real!

In spite of almost getting swallowed up in the bottomless pit of paper towel marketing tricks, Hodge finally decided to go with Bounty. We wonder if he received advice from his worried wife on that one. He told mySA.com:

“I was hoping to buy whichever brand that decided to stick to normal math, but every single one of them was on the bandwagon.”

Trust us, we know. It doesn’t matter if you try to go with a big name or the store brand, because they all follow the same packaging strategies. Be sure to watch the video below to have a good laugh about this all too understandable plight. Fellow paper towel shoppers, tell us how you feel about this!

Can you relate to this shopping issue? How do you handle the paper towel and TP dilemma? Is there a brand that always gets you or do you mix it up?