Yesterday, the Walmart clerk didn’t know “acetone.” “Nail polish remover,” she understood.
I’m thinking that nowadays, non-Acetone type nail polish remover is becoming the norm.
A couple of weeks ago I baffled a worker at the local grocery store – a manager type in a jacket no less – by asking him where the alcohol was. He looked at me blankly, said “Grocery stores in Massachusetts can’t sell alcohol.” Well, duh, I’ve lived here for more than fifty years. It wasn’t until I specified I wanted ISOPROPYL alcohol that the penny dropped.
Oh God I just remembered something that happened to me in a Wal-Mart as a teen.
When to Walmart to get some baking supplies for my mom. I couldn’t find them so I asked an older female employee “Do you happen to know where the measuring cups are?” And the employee looked at me straight-faced and said “Measuring cups for bras?” I have no idea why she said that so I just walked off and said nevermind to her.
I think his confusion was fair. (And as was the confusion upthread of the store employee who when asked for pipe cleaner directed the customer to drain cleaner.)
Your name isn’t Ronny Barker, is it?
EVERYONE knows that lox is liquid oxygen.
If you are using it for food, watch out as it is dangerous! 
Well yeah, you being purposely confusing would baffle me too. I don’t think I’ve ever in my life called or heard of “isopropyl alcohol” being referred to simply as “alcohol.” It’s always “isopropyl alcohol” or “rubbing alcohol.”
Asking in a grocery store “where is the alcohol?” will 100% get you an answer related to liquor.
I use isopropyl alcohol to clean my glass pipes (used for tobacco only). I’ve never used it for “rubbing” though. What are you supposed to rub with isopropyl?
It’s an antiseptic.
I think that for these two (and some other products) , the issue is related to the type of store. If I was looking for nail polish remover in Walmart, I probably wouldn’t refer to it as “acetone” but I might if I was in a beauty supply store and specifically wanted acetone nail polish remover rather than non-acetone. It’s possible that I might need to specify “rubbing alcohol” in a supermarket, but not in a drugstore. ( I might not need to specify for “acetone” and “alcohol” if I’m standing in the “health and beauty” section of the supermarket). Just the same as if I wanted nail glue in the hardware store I would ask for “Krazy glue” or superglue rather than nail glue ( although some nail glues are exactly the same as superglue)
History
The term “rubbing alcohol” came into prominence in North America in the mid-1920s. The original rubbing alcohol was literally used as a liniment for massage; hence the name. This original rubbing alcohol was rather different from today’s precisely formulated surgical spirit; in some formulations it was perfumed and included different additives, notably a higher concentration of methyl salicylate.
Methyl salicylate is used in high concentrations as a rubefacient and analgesic in deep heating liniments (such as Bengay) to treat joint and muscular pain.
Thank you!!
I’d always known the “rubbing” in rubbing alchohol meant for massaging into skin, but the product, at least in my 60+ years, has never really been suitable for that. Which left me baffled about the origin of the name, but never curious enough to solve the mystery.
A few years ago, Paul McCartney & Wings released a new Greatest Hits album. Mom and I went to Walmart to buy the CD.
The 20-year-old store clerk had no idea who Paul McCartney was.
You’ve probably been looking right past it because "rubbing” rubbing alcohol is, usually, green.
Don’t be fooled by the wintergreen on the label,
Under its alternative name of “wintergreen oil”, methyl salicylate is a common additive to North American rubbing alcohol products.
I never knew that. I always assumed the “rubbing” referred to it’s use as an antiseptic/disinfectant, like when a nurse rubs an alcohol swab on your arm before giving an injection.
Me too.
That green rubbing alcohol with methyl salicylate … is it actually helpful for minor aches and pains? Or other ailments?
Not here in Massachusetts, where as I already said, grocery stores DO NO sell alcoholic beverages. Well, maybe those heavily salted ‘cooking wines’, I’ve never looked for those.
What they sell are denatured ethanol and isopropyl for various skin cleaning and other ‘medical’ type uses, and that’s what I wanted. Saying I had to specify the isopropyl part to begin with would be like saying if I asked a clerk what aisle the oils were in, I first had to specify I wasn’t talking about heating oil or such.
I’m guessing it was not obvious looking at you that you were a long-time resident of Massachusetts and so the clerk assumed you were from out of town and that you were looking for liquor. I think it was a reasonable on his part.