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GOODWILL - Narrative (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands	Sep. 30, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Goodwill and Intangible assets	$ 1,000,000
Goodwill and Intangible assets, percent of total assets	17.00%
Goodwill	$ 594,511	$ 582,336
Fabory [Member]
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Goodwill		$ 106,000
Percentage of fair value in excess of carrying amount		15.00%

X

- Definition

Intangible Assets, Net (Including Goodwill), Percent Of Total Assets

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	gww_
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X

- Definition

Amount after accumulated impairment loss of an asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35741047&loc=d3e13816-109267

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6388280&loc=d3e13770-109266

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 5
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64834752&loc=SL49117168-202975

+ Details

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Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

X

- Definition

Carrying amount of finite-lived intangible assets, indefinite-lived intangible assets and goodwill. Goodwill is an asset representing the future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized. Intangible assets are assets, not including financial assets, lacking physical substance.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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X

- Definition

Percentage of fair value of reporting unit in excess of carrying amount.

+ References

No definition available.

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X

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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X

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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