Income Taxes (Components Of Deferred Tax Assets And Liabilities) (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	Jan. 31, 2015	Feb. 01, 2014
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]
Compensation and benefits accruals	$ 191	$ 182
Allowance for sales returns	62	56
Accrued expenses	51	48
Allowance for credit losses	29	32
Merchandise inventories	31us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsInventory	28us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsInventory
Gift cards	23	21
Gain on sale of interest rate swap	12us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsDeferredIncome	19us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsDeferredIncome
Nordstrom Notes	22	18
Federal benefit of state taxes	3us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsStateTaxes	6us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsStateTaxes
Other	4us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther	16us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsOther
Total deferred tax assets	428us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet	426us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsNet
Land, property and equipment basis and depreciation differences	(116)	(98)
Debt exchange premium	(22)	(24)
Total deferred tax liabilities	(138)us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities	(122)us-gaap_DeferredTaxLiabilities
Net deferred tax assets	$ 290us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet	$ 304us-gaap_DeferredTaxAssetsLiabilitiesNet

The tax effect as of the balance sheet date of the amount of the estimated future tax deductions attributable to gift card and gift certificate income recognized only for tax purposes and which will reverse when recognized under generally accepted accounting principles.

No definition available.