Corporate mergers and buyouts seem to be changing the names of D.C.’s familiars in recent months. First Verizon (now Qwest?) moves to grab MCI, throwing the name of the MCI Center into flux, and now May Department Stores Co., owner of area stores Hecht’s and Filene’s, announces a merger with Federated Department Stores Inc. (Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s).

Once consummated, Federated will operate more than 950 department stores, along with approximately 700 bridal and formalwear stores. In addition, 15 new states, mostly in the nation’s heartland, will be layered onto Federated’s existing 34-state operating base, with relatively little overlap between the companies’ locations. As a result, Federated for the first time will have a truly national retail footprint, with stores in 64 of the nation’s top 65 markets.

It appears that our downtown Hecht’s may soon become a Macy’s, with Federated stating that store name changes will not happen until at least 2006.