BASIS OF PRESENTATION (Policies)	3 Months Ended
BASIS OF PRESENTATION (Policies)	Apr. 30, 2016
BASIS OF PRESENTATION
Basis of Presentation	BASIS OF PRESENTATION All expressions of the “Company”, “us”, “we”, “our”, and all similar expressions are references to The Michaels Companies, Inc. and our consolidated, wholly-owned subsidiaries, unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires. Our consolidated financial statements include the accounts of The Michaels Companies, Inc. and our wholly-owned subsidiaries. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. On February 2, 2016, the Company completed the acquisition of Lamrite West, Inc. and certain of its affiliates and subsidiaries (“Lamrite”) for $150.0 million, prior to certain purchase price adjustments, utilizing our cash on hand. Lamrite operates an international wholesale business under the Darice brand name (“Darice”) and 33 arts and crafts retail stores, located primarily in Ohio and the surrounding states, under the Pat Catan’s brand name (“Pat Catan’s”). See Note 10 for further information. The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. Therefore, these financial statements should be read in conjunction with our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2016 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals and other items) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. We report on the basis of a 52- or 53-week fiscal year, which ends on the Saturday closest to January 31. All references to fiscal year mean the year in which that fiscal year began. References to “fiscal 2016” relate to the 52 weeks ended January 28, 2017 and references to “fiscal 2015” relate to the 52 weeks ended January 30, 2016. In addition, all references to “the first quarter of fiscal 2016” relate to the 13 weeks ended April 30, 2016 and all references to “the first quarter of fiscal 2015” relate to the 13 weeks ended May 2, 2015. Because of the seasonal nature of our business, the results of operations for the 13 weeks ended April 30, 2016 are not indicative of the results to be expected for the entire year. Certain prior year amounts have been reclassified in the accompanying consolidated financial statements to conform to our fiscal 2016 presentation, including the reclassification of current deferred income taxes to non-current deferred income taxes and the reclassification of certain unamortized debt issuance costs from non-current assets to a direct reduction of the related long-term debt obligation.
Share Repurchase Program	Share Repurchase Program In March 2016, the Board of Directors authorized the Company to purchase $200.0 million of the Company’s common stock on the open market. The share repurchase program does not have an expiration date, and the timing and number of repurchase transactions under the program will depend on market conditions, corporate considerations, debt agreements and regulatory requirements. Shares repurchased under the program are held as treasury shares until retired. As of April 30, 2016, we have repurchased 2.3 million shares for an aggregate amount of $59.3 million and have $140.7 million of availability remaining under our share repurchase program.
Accounting Pronouncements	Accounting Pronouncements Recently Adopted In April 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2015-05, “Intangibles — Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software (Subtopic 350-40): Customer’s Accounting for Fees Paid in a Cloud Computing Arrangement” (“ASU 2015-05”). ASU 2015-05 provides guidance to customers about whether a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license. If a cloud computing arrangement includes a software license, the customer should account for the software license element of the arrangement consistent with the acquisition of other software licenses. If a cloud computing arrangement does not include a software license, the customer should account for the arrangement as a service contract. The new guidance does not change the accounting for a customer’s accounting for service contracts. The Company adopted ASU 2015-05 in the first quarter of fiscal 2016 and its adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. Recent Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-09, “Compensation – Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting” (“ASU 2016-09”). ASU 2016-09 identifies areas for simplification involving several aspects of accounting for share-based payment transactions, including the income tax consequences, classification of awards as either equity or liabilities, an option to recognize gross stock compensation expense with actual forfeitures recognized as they occur, as well as certain classifications on the statement of cash flows. ASU 2016-09 is effective for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within that reporting period, with early adoption permitted. We are currently evaluating the impact that ASU 2016-09 will have on the consolidated financial statements. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-04, “Liabilities – Extinguishment of Liabilities (Subtopic 405-20): Recognition of Breakage for Certain Prepaid Stored-Value Products” (“ASU 2016-04”). ASU 2016-04 requires that breakage on prepaid stored-value product liabilities (for example, prepaid gift cards) be accounted for consistent with the breakage guidance in Topic 606: Revenue from Contracts with Customers. ASU 2016-04 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim reporting periods within that reporting period, with early adoption permitted. This standard is to be applied either using a modified retrospective approach or retrospectively to each period presented. We are evaluating the new standard but do not anticipate a material impact to the consolidated financial statements once implemented. In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)" ("ASU 2016-02"). Under ASU 2016-02, an entity will be required to recognize right-of-use assets and lease liabilities on its balance sheet and disclose key information about leasing arrangements. ASU 2016-02 offers specific accounting guidance for a lessee, a lessor and sale and leaseback transactions. Lessees and lessors are required to disclose qualitative and quantitative information about leasing arrangements to enable a user of the financial statements to assess the amount, timing and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. ASU 2016-02 is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within that reporting period, with early adoption permitted. At adoption, this update will be applied using a modified retrospective approach. We are currently evaluating the impact that ASU 2016-02 will have on the consolidated financial statements. In May 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASU 2014-09”). ASU 2014-09 supersedes the revenue recognition requirements in “Revenue Recognition (Topic 605)”, and requires entities to recognize revenue in a way that depicts the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services. In July 2015, the FASB decided to delay the effective date of ASU 2014-09 by one year. ASU 2014-09 is now effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2017, including interim periods within that reporting period. The standard is to be applied retrospectively, with early application permitted for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2016, including interim periods within that reporting period. In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-08, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Principal versus Agent Considerations (Reporting Revenue Gross versus Net)” (“ASU 2016-08”) which is intended to improve the operability and understandability of the implementation guidance on principal versus agent considerations. Additionally, in April 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-10, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606): Identifying Performance Obligations and Licensing” (“ASU 2016-10”) which provides further guidance on identifying performance obligations and improves the operability and understandability of the licensing implementation guidance. Both ASU 2016-08 and ASU 2016-10 have the same effective date and transition requirements as ASU 2014-09. We are evaluating the new standards but do not anticipate a material impact to the consolidated financial statements once implemented.