Basis of Presentation - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		12 Months Ended			9 Months Ended			3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		1 Months Ended					3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended					3 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012 Investment	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012 Investment	Sep. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2011 Investment	Sep. 30, 2012 Minimum	Sep. 30, 2012 Maximum	Sep. 30, 2012 Employees Base Compensation Maximum	Sep. 30, 2012 Employees Incentive Pay Compensation Maximum	Sep. 30, 2012 Non Employee Directors Cash And Stock Director Fee Maximum	Sep. 30, 2012 Stock options	Sep. 30, 2011 Stock options	Sep. 30, 2012 Stock options	Sep. 30, 2011 Stock options	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock units	Sep. 30, 2011 Restricted stock units	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock units	Sep. 30, 2011 Restricted stock units	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock units and restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2011 Restricted stock units and restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2012 Restricted stock units and restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2011 Restricted stock units and restricted stock awards	Sep. 30, 2012 Executive Officer	Sep. 30, 2012 Executive Officer Stock options	Sep. 30, 2012 Executive Officer Restricted stock units	Sep. 30, 2012 Fixed Rate Long Term Debt	Dec. 31, 2011 Fixed Rate Long Term Debt	Sep. 30, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership	Sep. 30, 2011 Sales and Lease Ownership	Sep. 30, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership	Sep. 30, 2011 Sales and Lease Ownership	Sep. 30, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Customer relationship intangibles Y	Sep. 30, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Non-compete intangibles	Sep. 30, 2012 Sales and Lease Ownership Acquired franchise development rights	Sep. 30, 2012 HomeSmart	Sep. 30, 2011 HomeSmart	Sep. 30, 2012 HomeSmart	Sep. 30, 2011 HomeSmart	Sep. 30, 2012 HomeSmart Customer relationship intangibles Y	Sep. 30, 2012 HomeSmart Non-compete intangibles	Oct. 14, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Store	Sep. 30, 2012 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary	Sep. 30, 2012 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary	Dec. 31, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary	Sep. 30, 2012 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Maximum	Dec. 31, 2011 Variable Interest Entity, Not Primary Beneficiary Maximum
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Line Items]
Bonds maturity year						2012	2014
Number of bonds in unrealized loss position	9		9		38
Number of bonds	41		41		44
Lease merchandise adjustments	$ 15,800,000	$ 12,700,000	$ 39,300,000	$ 32,600,000
Acquired goodwill assets on business combination																														12,800,000		12,800,000					687,000		687,000
Acquired intangible assets on business combination																																		1,400,000	1,000,000	708,000					156,000	72,000
Aggregate purchase price of acquisitions																														27,000,000		27,000,000					1,400,000		1,400,000
Estimated useful lives of intangibles																																		2							2
Amortization expense																														618,000	455,000	1,900,000	1,400,000				278,000	93,000	796,000	93,000
Compensation expense related to unvested stock option grants	698,000.0	612,000.0	1,500,000	1,800,000
Compensation expense related to restricted stock unit ("RSUs") awards and restricted stock awards ("RSAs")	2,200,000.0	758,000.0	3,600,000	2,000,000
Charge related to retirement of key executive																									10,400,000
Compensation costs related to accelerated vesting of restricted stock units and stock options																									1,700,000
Restricted stock vested																											75,000
Stock option vested																										25,000
Percentage of deferred compensation arrangement								75.00%	100.00%	100.00%
Deferred compensation plan liability	8,900,000		8,900,000		6,300,000
Cash surrender value of company-owned life insurance ("COLI") contracts	9,900,000		9,900,000		5,800,000
Deferred compensation expense charged to operations	78,000	60,000	240,000	250,000
Deferred compensation benefits paid	565,000	77,000	565,000	77,000
Uncertain tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect the effective tax rate	1,300,000		1,300,000		1,200,000
Increase in weighted average shares outstanding assuming dilution											816,000.0	1,000,000	847,000.0	994,000.0	267,000	182,000	245,000	169,000	7,000	7,000
Anti-dilutive Securities excluded from the computation of earnings per share assuming dilution														293,000							18,000	6,000	26,000	6,000
Assets Held For Sale	11,961,000		11,961,000		9,885,000
Percentage of common stock outstanding																																											11.50%
Number of retail stores																																											53
Investment included in prepaid expenses and other assets																																															1,000	1,000
Held to maturity securities	99,859,000		99,859,000		98,132,000																																							17,900,000	17,900,000	15,900,000
Gains (losses) related to the investment																																												487,000	670,000
Maximum exposure to any potential losses associated with VIE																																												17,900,000	17,900,000
Write-down from carrying value to fair value	0	74,000	600,000	74,000	453,000
Assets held for sale, carrying value					10,400,000
Assets held for sale, fair value					9,900,000
Long term debt, carrying value																												125,000,000	137,000,000
Long term debt, fair value																												$ 127,403,000	$ 135,031,000