[2] After many changes in the retail industry, the company merged with Federated Department Stores (now Macy's, Inc.) in 2005.

[3] In 1911, The Famous Clothing Store (owned by May) and the William Barr Dry Goods Company merged to create Famous-Barr.

[3] In 1947, May acquires Strouss-Hirshberg Co. based in Youngstown, Ohio, retaining it as a separate division and changing the name to Strouss.

[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.

[12] In 1999, May acquired Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution based in Salt Lake City, folding it into the Meier & Frank subsidiary.

[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).

[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).

In advance of the retail consolidation, May's credit call center in Lorain, Ohio, ceased operations on July 1, 2006.

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.

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.