Debt and Credit Agreements (Details) (USD $)	Apr. 28, 2012	Jan. 28, 2012	Nov. 04, 2010	Apr. 28, 2012 Short Term Debt October 2012 Notes [Member]	Sep. 30, 2002 Short Term Debt October 2012 Notes [Member]	Jan. 28, 2012 Long Term Debt October 2012 Notes [Member]	Apr. 28, 2012 Long Term Debt January 2014 Notes, including Unamortized Gain [Member]	Jan. 28, 2012 January 2014 Notes	Jan. 15, 2009 January 2014 Notes	Apr. 28, 2012 Lines of Credit	Jan. 28, 2012 Lines of Credit	Apr. 28, 2012 Capital lease obligations and other notes payable	Jan. 28, 2012 Capital lease obligations and other notes payable
Debt and credit agreements
Maximum Borrowing Capacity of Commercial Paper Program	$ 1,000,000,000
Outstanding debt
Total long-term debt	2,034,047,000	2,038,180,000		329,761,000	325,000,000	332,617,000	1,521,812,000	1,525,003,000	1,500,000,000			8,372,000	9,815,000
Lines of Credit										174,102,000	170,745,000
Less: Current portion	(438,115,000)	(439,143,000)
Net long-term debt	1,595,932,000	1,599,037,000
Other debt and credit agreement disclosures
Maximum borrowing capacity			1,000,000,000							309,000,000
Maximum borrowing capacity upon agreement of participating lenders			$ 1,500,000,000