Comment by serbuvlad

I guess that's why it doesn't work in Romania. Most romanians take a certain amount of healthy pride in being cheap, or rather, in being able to get more for as little money as possible.

If you buy the expensive beer you're not impressing too many people. But of course, there are 50 cheap beers, most of which suck. The pride is kmowing that one cheap beer that's as good as the expensive ones.

The fact that taxis often tried to extort tips out of you and lied to you about the price by not running their meters is what made Uber popular here -- it ended up being cheaper.

My advice: stop tipping. Just you, personally. If the average person tips 10%, and tomorrow everyone stopped tipping, prices will probably increase by ~10%.

So just personally stop tipping and enjoy the permaneny 10% discount all the other suckers are gifting you.