“The whole police force has been bought off”: How the language dispute over cauliflower at the store ended
10 June 12:20
A dispute broke out in a store in Kropyvnytskyi over the wording on a price tag. A customer called the police because she believed that the label “цвітна капуста” was incorrect and should be changed to “кольорова капуста.” The saleswoman herself described the incident in a video, according to "Komersant Ukrainian"
According to the store employee, a police unit arrived at the store during her shift. It turned out that the call was prompted by a complaint from a customer who did not like the wording on a vegetable price tag.
As the saleswoman explained, the customer saw the label “цвітна капуста” and claimed that the word “цвітна” was supposedly Russian. She began demanding that the price tag be changed to “кольорова капуста.”
The store employee tried to explain that the name “цвітна капуста” comes from the word “цвіт,” since it refers to the vegetable’s inflorescence, not its color.
“She says, ‘Not tsvitna, but kolorova.’ I ask, ‘What color is it?’ I say, ‘Tsvitna kapusta comes from the word “tsvit”—it blooms, it’s a flower head,’” the saleswoman recounted.
However, these arguments did not convince the customer.
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The saleswoman was accused of “aiding the Kremlin”
According to the store employee, the customer interpreted the text on the price tag as proof that the saleswoman was allegedly working “for the Russian Federation.” That is why the woman insisted that the police “take action.”
Upon arriving at the scene, the police listened to both sides of the conflict; however, according to the saleswoman, they did not find any violation of the law. Law enforcement officers found no grounds for any sanctions or filing a complaint against the store employee.
After that, according to the saleswoman, the customer reacted emotionally and claimed that “our entire police force has been bought off.”
The incident sparked discussion on social media, as the word “tsvitna” is standard in the Ukrainian language and is widely used to refer to this type of cabbage.
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