If there’s a retail enticement I cannot resist, it’s a store’s dangling of impossibly stylish clothing for seemingly reasonable prices. You spend $39  (that’s about the common offering) and in return get a pair of shoes or a set of lingerie or an awesome workout outfit. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, it turns out, as the notion can be very expensive. The only thing that woke me from the spell cast by adorable low-priced pajamas is the cold dash of cynicism that comes from reporting on consumer issues for a decade. I decided to perform a quick web search to see if it’s a scam, maybe someone else found the products never arrive or they’re very low quality.

Neither – it turns out the particular site I was about to patronize wasn’t going to sell me a pair of pajamas, it was going to sell me a pair of pajamas each month for  a very long time. You see, it turns out many sites – Adore Me, Kate Hudson’s Fabletics, JustFab and the Kardashian affiliated ShoeDazzle, to name a few – present to us gorgeous clothes at stunning prices. The catch is that by accepting this VIP price, we are also accepting the terms of the agreement (printed likely nearby but in a separate, boxed off paragraph we don’t bother to read because it’s just extra text) which state we must take some sort of action each month or we’re charged the subscription amount.

Sam Biddle in this article explains the concept with pictures. They show you the math, they show you the promo code, they even to be fair show you that you’re signing up for a subscription — but in a way we’re unlikely to see. Biddle points out that in Germany, where consumer protection laws are strict, these sort of websites make it very obvious that you can pay a higher price, say $79, for a single pair of shoes. But if you want the discounted $39, you’re going to have to buy a pair every month.