Significant Accounting Policies (Details Textuals) (USD $)	12 Months Ended
	Aug. 27, 2011 Year ReportableSegment Plaintiffs OperatingSegment LegalMatter Manager SecuritiesHold Store Strategy DerivativeInstrument	Aug. 28, 2010 Year DerivativeInstrument gal	Aug. 29, 2009
Entity Wide Information About Geographic Areas [Line Items]
Number of stores	4,813
Significant Accounting Policies (Textuals) [Abstract]
Number of domestic stores in the United States and Puerto Rico	4,534
Number of stores with commercial sales program	2,659
Allowances for uncollectible accounts	$ 2,100,000	$ 1,400,000
Unrecorded adjustment for LIFO value in excess of replacement value	253,300,000	247,300,000
Impairment loss of long lived assets	0	0	0
Impairment loss of goodwill	0
Goodwill	302,645,000	302,645,000
To date the number of derivative instruments utilized to reduce foreign exchange rate risk	0	0
Cumulative loss on currency translation recorded in accumulated other comprehensive loss	36,401,000	44,748,000	45,453,000
Deferred rent	77,600,000	67,600,000
Measure of income tax benefit for uncertain income tax positions	More than 50%
Advertising expense, net of vendor promotional funds	71,500,000	65,500,000	72,100,000
Vendor promotional funds, which reduced advertising expense	23,200,000	19,600,000	9,700,000
Limited warranty period, minimum period (Days)	30 days
Mexico [Member]
Entity Wide Information About Geographic Areas [Line Items]
Number of stores	279
Buildings [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated Minimum useful lives	40
Estimated Maximum useful lives	50
Building improvements [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated Minimum useful lives	5
Estimated Maximum useful lives	15
Equipment [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Estimated Minimum useful lives	3
Estimated Maximum useful lives	10
Stock Options [Member]
Antidilutive Securities Excluded from Computation of Earnings Per Share [Line Items]
Anti-dilutive shares excluded from the computation of earnings per share	0	0	30,000
Cash Equivalents [Member]
Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents Items [Line Items]
Maturity period of investments	90 days or less
Settlement term of credit and debit card transactions	less than 5 days
Credit and debit card receivables included within cash and cash equivalents	$ 32,500,000	$ 29,600,000