Related Party Transactions	12 Months Ended
Related Party Transactions	Dec. 31, 2011
Related Party Transactions [Abstract]
Related Party Transactions	RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS West Marine had one related party transaction that terminated in 2011 and one that it plans to terminate in 2012. The Company had leased its store in Palo Alto, California from a trust, for which Randolph K. Repass is the trustee since February 2002. Prior to that, the Company leased its Palo Alto store directly from Randolph K. Repass. When it closed this store, the Company opened a nearby store in the general vicinity of Palo Alto and the new store is leased from a party not related to the Company. As a result of the store closure, the final lease payment to the related party for the Palo Alto store location was processed in February 2011. The Company leased its store in New Bedford, Massachusetts from a corporation of which Mr. Repass’ brother is the President and his father is a member of the board of directors and a major stockholder. The New Bedford lease expired in February 2012, and the Company currently is operating on a month-to-month tenancy. The Company expects to terminate the New Bedford lease on or around June 2012 in connection with a new store in the neighboring area to be leased from a party unrelated to the Company. In addition, the Company leases its Watsonville, California support center and its stores in Santa Cruz, California and Braintree, Massachusetts from three partnerships. Mr. Repass is a general partner of each partnership and, together with certain members of his family, owns substantially all of the partnership interests in such partnerships. Geoffrey A. Eisenberg, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, is a 7.5% limited partner in the two partnerships from which the Company leases its Watsonville, California support center and its store in Santa Cruz, California. In July 2011, a lease amendment was signed which reduced the amount of Watsonville, California support center storage space leased to West Marine and extended the storage space lease from November 2011 to October 2016. Due to the lease amendment, the Company's related contractual obligation decreased by immaterial amounts for fiscal years 2011 through 2016. Pursuant to these leases, West Marine paid rent to the above-related parties during fiscal years 2011, 2010 and 2009 in the aggregate amount of approximately $1.6 million, $1.5 million and $1.6 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2011, there were no amounts due from related parties.

The entire disclosure for related party transactions, including the nature of the relationship(s), a description of the transactions, the amount of the transactions, the effects of any change in the method of establishing the terms of the transaction from the previous period, stated interest rate, expiration date, terms and manner of settlement per the agreement with the related party, and amounts due to or from related parties. If the entity and one or more other entities are under common ownership or management control and this control affects the operating results or financial position, disclosure includes the nature of the control relationship even if there are no transactions between the entities. Disclosure may also include the aggregate amount of current and deferred tax expense for each statement of earnings presented where the entity is a member of a group that files a consolidated tax return, the amount of any tax related balances due to or from affiliates as of the date of each statement of financial position presented, the principal provisions of the method by which the consolidated amount of current and deferred tax expense is allocated to the members of the group and the nature and effect of any changes in that method. Examples of related party transactions include transactions between (a) a parent company and its subsidiary; (b) subsidiaries of a common parent; (c) and entity and its principal owners; and (d) affiliates.

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