“I would not want to shop at the Macy’s I remember,” said Peter Horvath, a retail consultant at the Institute of Brand Logic in Innsbruck, Austria. He recalled the Macy’s of yore as an uninviting, crowded souk of a shop with dim lights, worn carpets and middling merchandise. On a visit to Manhattan in October, he said he was surprised to find the store now possessed of grand halls, modern merchandising and natural light. “It was just a better feeling than before,” he said.

The renovation started in 2012 with the unveiling of a revamped grand hall on the main floor and a new women’s shoe department. Last year, an Italian restaurant was introduced on the sixth floor. This weekend, new departments for men’s tailored clothing and women’s casual sportswear are to open. Still, the impeccable presentation of the floors downstairs can make certain yet-to-be-renovated sections upstairs, where locals buy staples like linens, feel a bit neglected. “I think it’s temporary growing pains,” said Liz Dunn, the chief executive of Talmage Advisors, a brand consulting firm in Manhattan. “Macy’s upper-floor experience needs to be more flawless.”

A District Unto Itself

This fall, Macy’s Herald Square will process 15 million pieces of merchandise. To accommodate the holiday shopping surge, its staff will temporarily increase to 6,500 employees from its usual 4,400. And more than 200,000 people are expected to come by to visit Santa Claus.

Macy’s Inc. manages its regional operations by dividing its department stores into 60 districts of 10 to 12 stores. But the flagship store is so large that it is considered a district unto itself, with a management team of 350 executives, said Patti M. Lee, the district vice president and general manager of Macy’s Herald Square.

“One of the questions you have with an operation of this size and velocity is: How do the goods get in here and out to the floor?” she said. “What goes where? It’s a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Consider the logistics of getting just one pair of Michael Kors moccasins into the store and out to a customer. The revamped women’s shoe department occupies 63,000 square feet on the second floor, including stockrooms. That is several thousand square feet larger than a football field.