Retail company acquired by Federated Department Stores in 2006
This article is about the defunct holding company. For its department store chain in California, see May Company California. For its department store chain in Colorado, see May-Daniels & Fisher. For its department store chain in Ohio, see May Company Ohio. For the unrelated New York–based chain, see J.W. Mays.
The May Department Stores Company was an American department storeholding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.[1] It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905.[2] After many changes in the retail industry, the company merged with Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) in 2005.
This company was only a holding company that bought, sold, and merged regional department stores, such as Foley's and L.S. Ayres. During most of its history, the operations of the various divisions were kept separate and had their own buyers and credit cards. The latter were not accepted at other May-owned stores. At times, two different May stores operated in the same geographical market, but they were aimed at different customers. Most decisions for each of the regional store companies were made by management at the local headquarters and not by the holding company in St. Louis.
Some of the regional stores shared names that were similar to the parent company, such as Los Angeles–based May Company California. All it had in common with the parent was that these stores were headed by a different member of the May family as the president of their respective regional store chain. They were separate legal entities.
In 1946, May acquired the Kaufmann's chain based in Pittsburgh, retaining it as a separate division.[3] In 1947, May acquires Strouss-Hirshberg Co. based in Youngstown, Ohio, retaining it as a separate division and changing the name to Strouss.
In 1956, May acquired the Daniels & Fisher Company of Denver, merging it with May stores in the area to create a new May-Daniels & Fisher division.[5]
In 1966, May acquired the Meier & Frank chain based in Portland, Oregon, adding it as a new division.[5] David's grandson Morton May became the chairman in 1951 and headed the company for 16 years. Morton May was active in St. Louis civic affairs and was a patron of the St. Louis Art Museum.
In 1968, Venture Stores was founded when Target co-founder John F. Geisse went to work for May Department Stores.[citation needed] Under an antitrust settlement reached with the Department of Justice, May was unable to acquire any more retail chains at the time, and the department store company needed a way to compete against the emerging discount store chains.
In August 1978, May sold the 70-store Consumers chain of catalogue merchants to the Canadian Consumers Distributing.[7][8] It closed its stores in 1996.[9]
In 1993, May Company California and J.W. Robinson's merged to form Robinsons-May. In that same year, Filene's absorbed the G. Fox division, Kaufmann's absorbed the May Company Ohio division, and Foley's absorbed the May D&F division.
In 2001, Meier & Frank absorbed the ZCMI name, entering the Utah marketplace. In that same year, Hecht's acquired five Proffitt's stores in Nashville TN, entering the Nashville marketplace.
In 2002, Meier & Frank operations consolidated with the Robinsons-May division while Kaufmann's operations consolidated with the Filene's division, yet both retaining the Meier & Frank and Kaufmann's names.
In 2005, May was acquired by Federated Department Stores for $11 billion (~$16.5 billion in 2023) in stock, with all former May divisions being folded into Federated's various Macy's branches.[14][15]
In 2006, over 400 former May stores, with their wide variety of long-standing brand names, were consolidated and renamed as Macy's. In addition, Federated sells off three former May chains (David's Bridal, Lord & Taylor and Priscilla of Boston).[14]
Merger of Federated and May
On February 28, 2005, Federated Department Stores, Inc., announced that they would acquire the May company for $11 billion.[16] To help finance the May Company deal, Federated agreed to sell its combined proprietary credit card business to Citigroup.[17] The merger was completed on August 30, 2005[18] after an assurance agreement was reached with the State Attorneys General of New York, California, Massachusetts, Maryland and Pennsylvania.[19]
By September 2006, all of the May regional nameplates, except for the Lord & Taylor chain, ceased to exist as Federated consolidated its operations under the Macy's mastheads including the stores most famous names Marshall Field's, Filene's, and Kaufmann's, as well as the last nameplate to still have the May name (Robinsons-May). All locations that were not sold off were rebranded as Macy's, except for one Hecht's location in Friendship Heights. That was rebuilt and rebranded as Bloomingdale's. In advance of the retail consolidation, May's credit call center in Lorain, Ohio, ceased operations on July 1, 2006. Lord & Taylor, the lone department store division not to be largely converted to the Macy's nameplate, was sold to a group of investors at NRDC Equity Partners, LLC for $1.2 billion (~$1.75 billion in 2023) in October 2006.[20] David's Bridal and After Hours Formalwear were sold in November 2006.[21]
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, the May Department Stores Company created a real estate division that handled the purchase of land and the construction of the buildings that would house their new stand-alone department stores. Starting in 1947, when they wanted to open a new store for their May Company California division, May entered the new open-air shopping center development business with the construction of what would later become the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles.[22] After that time, May became a major shopping center, and later mall developer when they began to develop new malls to house their newly proposed department stores.
During the mid-1980s, the company noticed that their stock was vastly undervalued and therefore was at risk of becoming a hostile takeover target.[23][24] May Department Stores needed to re-purchase some of its company's stock to increase the share price. To accomplish this, they needed to obtain cash quickly, which they did by making a deal with Prudential Insurance in which the insurance company gave May $550 million in exchange for 50% ownership of May Centers.[25][26] In 1992, Prudential purchased the rest of May Centers and renamed the company CenterMark.[26][27]
