This is the best Bay location in the city, but the reasons I like it have nothing to do with shopping. It's generally quiet above the ground floor, which makes for low-key window shopping and strolling around aimlessly. The layout and displays here are beautiful, albeit not quite on par with Holt Renfrew. The ground floor should be avoided unless you don't mind aggressive cosmetics salespeople - most are nice but it's impossible to just look around without having some promo pitched at you.
Overall I don't really know how they stay in business since the product quality/selection seems quite average compared to the prices. Your best bet is to come on a Friday or weekend during sales events. I suspect much of their business relies on office workers shopping during lunch - the PATH connection is a lifesaver during winter months.
The gift registry process is a little bit terrible, but maybe they've improved since I had that experience a few years ago. The trouble is that most of the items I selected were discontinued or unavailable within 1 month, so I ended up with quite a few gift cards.