Basis Of Presentation (Policy)	9 Months Ended
May 29, 2021
Basis Of Presentation [Abstract]
Fiscal Year	Fiscal Year The Company operates on a 52/53-week fiscal year ending on the Saturday closest to August 31. References to “fiscal year 2021” refer to the period from August 30, 2020 to August 28, 2021, which is a 52-week fiscal year. References to “fiscal year 2020” refer to the period from September 1, 2019 to August 29, 2020, which is a 52-week fiscal year. The fiscal quarters ended May 29, 2021 and May 30, 2020 refer to the thirteen weeks ended as of those dates.
Principles Of Consolidation	Principles of Consolidation The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., its wholly owned subsidiaries and entities in which it maintains a controlling financial interest. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
Impact Of COVID-19	Impact of COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and may further impact the Company’s operations, and the operations of the Company’s suppliers and vendors, as a result of quarantines, facility closures, and travel and logistics restrictions. During the prior fiscal year, the Company experienced an increase in the volume of its sales of safety-related products. However, the Company has also realized lower product margins as well as inventory write-downs, each as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to the increased supply of competing products from manufacturers and an expected inability to sell excess inventory of safety-related products ordered from manufacturers earlier in the pandemic. During the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, the Company incurred PPE-related inventory write-downs of $30,091 to reduce the carrying value of certain PPE-related inventory to its estimated net realizable value. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and depend on, among other things, the duration, spread, severity, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the success and speed of vaccination efforts both in the United States and globally, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s customers, suppliers, and vendors and the remedial actions and stimulus measures adopted by local and federal governments, and the pace and the extent to which normal economic and operating conditions can resume. Therefore, the Company cannot reasonably estimate future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic at this time. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to abate, and restrictions on business and commercial activity have been lifted, the economy in the United States has experienced acute increases in demand for certain products and services, including the demand for fuel, labor and certain products the Company sells or the inputs for such products. In some cases, this has led to a shortage of fuel, labor and of certain such products. While such shortages have not yet had a material impact on the Company’s business or results of operations, they may do so in the future and the Company cannot reasonably estimate the future impacts of such shortages at this time.
Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements	Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements Effective August 30, 2020, the Company adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. ASU 2016-13 requires that an entity measure impairment of certain financial instruments, including trade receivables, based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. Effective August 30, 2020, the Company adopted FASB ASU 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350). This standard eliminates the second step from the goodwill impairment test and instead requires an entity to perform its annual or interim goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An impairment charge would be recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, not to exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted	Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting, which provides temporary optional expedients and exceptions to accounting guidance on contract modifications and hedge accounting to ease entities financial reporting burdens as the market transitions from LIBOR and other interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates. The guidance was effective upon issuance and may be applied prospectively to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated on or before December 31, 2022. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, which removes certain exceptions related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocations, the calculation of income taxes in interim periods, and the recognition of deferred taxes for taxable goodwill. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020 and for interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company is required to apply this guidance in its fiscal year 2022 interim and annual financial statements. Currently, the Company does not expect this standard to have a material impact on its unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures. Other pronouncements issued by the FASB or other authoritative accounting standards groups with future effective dates are either not applicable or are not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.
Reclassifications	Reclassifications Certain prior period Operating expenses were reclassified into Restructuring costs within the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income to conform to the current period presentation. These reclassifications did not affect income from operations in any period presented. Furthermore, prior period cash dividends declared on Class A and Class B Common Stock have been further disaggregated into regular and special cash dividends declared on Class A and Class B Common Stock to conform to the current period presentation within the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholder’s Equity. These reclassifications did not impact total dividends declared in any period presented.

Basis Of Presentation (Policy)

9 Months Ended

May 29, 2021

The Company operates on a 52/53-week fiscal year ending on the Saturday closest to August 31. References to “fiscal year 2021” refer to the period from August 30, 2020 to August 28, 2021, which is a 52-week fiscal year. References to “fiscal year 2020” refer to the period from September 1, 2019 to August 29, 2020, which is a 52-week fiscal year. The fiscal quarters ended May 29, 2021 and May 30, 2020 refer to the thirteen weeks ended as of those dates.

Principles Of Consolidation

Principles of Consolidation

The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc., its wholly owned subsidiaries and entities in which it maintains a controlling financial interest. All significant intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Impact Of COVID-19

Impact of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted and may further impact the Company’s operations, and the operations of the Company’s suppliers and vendors, as a result of quarantines, facility closures, and travel and logistics restrictions. During the prior fiscal year, the Company experienced an increase in the volume of its sales of safety-related products. However, the Company has also realized lower product margins as well as inventory write-downs, each as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to the increased supply of competing products from manufacturers and an expected inability to sell excess inventory of safety-related products ordered from manufacturers earlier in the pandemic. During the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, the Company incurred PPE-related inventory write-downs of $30,091 to reduce the carrying value of certain PPE-related inventory to its estimated net realizable value. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact the Company’s business, financial condition and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and depend on, among other things, the duration, spread, severity, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the success and speed of vaccination efforts both in the United States and globally, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company’s customers, suppliers, and vendors and the remedial actions and stimulus measures adopted by local and federal governments, and the pace and the extent to which normal economic and operating conditions can resume. Therefore, the Company cannot reasonably estimate future impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic at this time.

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to abate, and restrictions on business and commercial activity have been lifted, the economy in the United States has experienced acute increases in demand for certain products and services, including the demand for fuel, labor and certain products the Company sells or the inputs for such products. In some cases, this has led to a shortage of fuel, labor and of certain such products. While such shortages have not yet had a

material impact on the Company’s business or results of operations, they may do so in the future and the Company cannot reasonably estimate the future impacts of such shortages at this time.

Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements

Effective August 30, 2020, the Company adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2016-13, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. ASU 2016-13 requires that an entity measure impairment of certain financial instruments, including trade receivables, based on expected losses rather than incurred losses. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Effective August 30, 2020, the Company adopted FASB ASU 2017-04, Intangibles – Goodwill and Other (Topic 350). This standard eliminates the second step from the goodwill impairment test and instead requires an entity to perform its annual or interim goodwill impairment test by comparing the fair value of a reporting unit with its carrying amount. An impairment charge would be recognized for the amount by which the carrying amount exceeds the reporting unit’s fair value, not to exceed the total amount of goodwill allocated to that reporting unit. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting, which provides temporary optional expedients and exceptions to accounting guidance on contract modifications and hedge accounting to ease entities financial reporting burdens as the market transitions from LIBOR and other interbank offered rates to alternative reference rates. The guidance was effective upon issuance and may be applied prospectively to contract modifications made and hedging relationships entered into or evaluated on or before December 31, 2022. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of the new guidance on its unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

In December 2019, the FASB issued ASU 2019-12, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes, which removes certain exceptions related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocations, the calculation of income taxes in interim periods, and the recognition of deferred taxes for taxable goodwill. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020 and for interim periods within those fiscal years, with early adoption permitted. The Company is required to apply this guidance in its fiscal year 2022 interim and annual financial statements. Currently, the Company does not expect this standard to have a material impact on its unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures.

Other pronouncements issued by the FASB or other authoritative accounting standards groups with future effective dates are either not applicable or are not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.

Reclassifications

Certain prior period Operating expenses were reclassified into Restructuring costs within the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income to conform to the current period presentation. These reclassifications did not affect income from operations in any period presented.

Furthermore, prior period cash dividends declared on Class A and Class B Common Stock have been further disaggregated into regular and special cash dividends declared on Class A and Class B Common Stock to conform to the current period presentation within the Company’s unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Shareholder’s Equity. These reclassifications did not impact total dividends declared in any period presented.