Fly-N-hi, welcome to the boards! You will find that the SW hobby is a very addictive one!
Anyhow, I am in N.Scottsdale...and I am a newbie as well, but I have spent a lot of time doing my homework and have invested a few miles visiting different LFS around town. I have been to both stores that PBLRDom points out in his posting...and i have spent a grand total of zero dollars between the two. They have some impressive displays at Ocean Floor with huge fish in huge tanks and a pretty decent variety in species (both fresh and salt water) for sale. I did notice that they are way overpriced in their equipment and most annoying of all the associates are not all up to par in their knowledge base and will try to sell you hard on the most expensive stuff there. That's something you should often expect out of a LFS, so as long as you go into it knowing a little background about what you are looking for you should be able to see pretty quickly who to talk to and who not to talk to.
Personally I prefer "Aquatouch". They are much closer to my house so it's more convenient at 32nd street and cactus rd.
The staff there is decent...they won't try to really upsell anything. But just like everywhere else they will sometimes give you advice that seems to contradict a lot of what we learn from books and boards. Their prices are a little more reasonable than others i have found around town and their display tanks are always in good shape. The owner of the place is an actual Marine Life researcher and he makes frequent trips to conferences, symposiums and does actual field work for whatever that's worth.
I bought my LR, LS and a few other things there...I have no complaints so far. I just like that they are clean and always have people at hand to help you out and answer your questions. They also have a big coral display tank that will definitely put you over the top if you are even thinking about doing a reef tank. And I like that they have a little section with small, cheaper frags (20 bucks or so each) for sale.
Good luck with your start-up and if there is anything I can chime in with or help you out with just let me know. Seems like we are probably around the same area.