What is the word for the cleaning alcohol used by employees to clean hands in 7 Eleven?


I tried asking:

Alcohol arimasu ka?

But they seemed confused and finally one person gave me the cleaning spray for
hands that's on the counter and that they use before handling food. I asked
what it was called in Japanese and they said Shokudo, but then I look that up
and it translates to "poison"




If you asked something like 「アルコールありますか」 (arukōru arimasu ka), they probably
understood that you wanted 酒 (sake).

I don't know which specific cleaning alcohol 7 Eleven employees use, but you
probably misheard "Shokudo". What I think you heard was 消毒剤{しょうどくざい} (shōdoku-
zai) or just 消毒{しょうどく} (shōdoku). It can mean an alcohol-based antiseptic like
this:

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eNJa0.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/eNJa0.jpg)

The kanji 毒 can mean poison, but in this word it means harm. A literal
translation of 消毒剤 could be "a substance that wipes out harmful things". It is
not very accurate name for it, because alcohol tends to kill harmless bacteria
as well. See this question for more details: [Etymology of
「消毒」](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/46496/etymology-
of-%E6%B6%88%E6%AF%92/46498)

