Initial Public Offering of Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. ("Blackhawk")	6 Months Ended
Jun. 15, 2013
Equity [Abstract]
Initial Public Offering of Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (Blackhawk)	INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF BLACKHAWK NETWORK HOLDINGS, INC. ("BLACKHAWK") On April 24, 2013, Blackhawk, a Safeway subsidiary, completed its initial public offering of 11.5 million shares of its Class A common stock at $23.00 per share on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, which included the exercise by the underwriters for the offering of an option to purchase 1.5 million shares of Class A common stock. The offering consisted solely of shares offered by existing stockholders, including Safeway. As part of the IPO, Safeway sold 11.3 million shares of Class A common stock of Blackhawk for proceeds of $243.6 million ($237.9 million, net of professional service fees), reducing the Company's ownership from approximately 95% to approximately 73% of Blackhawk's total outstanding shares of common stock. In the second quarter of 2013, Safeway recorded these net proceeds as an increase to Additional Paid-In Capital and used these net proceeds to reduce debt. Additionally, the Company recorded an estimated $82.3 million tax liability on the sale of these shares as a reduction to Additional Paid-In Capital which will be paid in the fourth quarter of 2013.

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING OF BLACKHAWK NETWORK HOLDINGS, INC. ("BLACKHAWK")

On April 24, 2013, Blackhawk, a Safeway subsidiary, completed its initial public offering of 11.5 million shares of its Class A common stock at $23.00 per share on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, which included the exercise by the underwriters for the offering of an option to purchase 1.5 million shares of Class A common stock. The offering consisted solely of shares offered by existing stockholders, including Safeway. As part of the IPO, Safeway sold 11.3 million shares of Class A common stock of Blackhawk for proceeds of $243.6 million ($237.9 million, net of professional service fees), reducing the Company's ownership from approximately 95% to approximately 73% of Blackhawk's total outstanding shares of common stock. In the second quarter of 2013, Safeway recorded these net proceeds as an increase to Additional Paid-In Capital and used these net proceeds to reduce debt. Additionally, the Company recorded an estimated $82.3 million tax liability on the sale of these shares as a reduction to Additional Paid-In Capital which will be paid in the fourth quarter of 2013.