Document and Entity Information - shares	9 Months Ended
	Nov. 03, 2018	Dec. 10, 2018
Entity Registrant Name	FREDS INC
Entity Central Index Key	0000724571
Document Type	10-Q/A
Trading Symbol	FRED
Document Period End Date	Nov. 03, 2018
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	Explanatory Note This Amendment No. 1 to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of Fred’s, Inc. (the “Company”) for the quarter ended November 3, 2018, originally filed on December 13, 2018 (the “Original Filing”), is being filed solely to include the XBRL documents as Exhibit 101, which were omitted from the Original Filing. Except as described above, no other changes have been made to the Original Filing, and this Form 10-Q/A does not modify, amend or update in any way any of the financial or other information contained in the Original Filing.
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--02-03
Entity's Reporting Status Current	Yes
Entity Small Business	true
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Entity Emerging Growth Company	false
Entity Ex Transition Period	false
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2019
Common Class A [Member]
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		37,686,555
Nonvoting Common Class B [Member]
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		0