  the may department stores company was an american department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown st. louis, missouri."federated and may announce merger; $17 billion transaction to create value for customers, shareholders." business wire. february 28, 2005. retrieved on august 19, 2009. it was founded by david may in 1877,the drive to differentiate - macy's, inc and 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 division were kept separate and had their own buyers and credit cards, which were not accepted at other may owned stores. there were times in which two different may's own stores had operated in the same geographical market but 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, but all it had in common with parent was that they were headed by a different member of the may family as the president of their respective regional store chain and were separate legal entities. ==history== thumb|right|christmas advertisement for hamburger's department store, los angeles, 1905 [[image:highsmithmaycompanywilshire.jpg|thumb|right|the 193
Clothing_retailers_of_the_United_States Companies_based_in_Colorado Companies_based_in_St._Louis,_Missouri Companies_disestablished_in_2005 Companies_established_in_1877 Defunct_companies_based_in_Missouri Defunct_department_stores_of_the_United_States Lake_County,_Colorado Macy\'s,_Inc.