Not all Asian markets are made equal. Tan Phat is no exception. And we have not been impressed by this store...sadly, too, as it's so close to home.
Here's the run down. The organization of the store is fine. At one end they have large refrigerators (maybe freezers?) and kitchen tools/dining supplies. At the other they have produce. Along the back wall they have a variety of fresh meats. I'll admit, we've bought very little here, though partly because we were unable to FIND what we were looking for. Everything in between seems to be organized by categories, some very specific some very broad: there's an aisle for rice noodles, almost exclusively, and another for Indian products.
While the store is pretty large (two or three times the size of our favorite little Viet store back in Utah), the selection seems to be pretty sparse. The shelves have a lot of the same taking up a lot of the space. We have tried to find flat broad wheat noodles (which seem to be hard to find in Phoenix, to be fair) and Hon-dashi, both to no avail. We also were unable to find anything but soft tofu on one visit.
I think the biggest hang up for me, just before the lack of merchandise, is the difficulty we've had in communicating with the staff. While I'm by no means an ardent believer of "In Murica we speak English!" I feel that if you're going to open a business that does draw a diverse clientele (I've seen others of various backgrounds, who also don't speak Vietnamese) it's important to expand your vocabulary enough to meet the needs and answer the questions of patrons. This does not appear to be a priority for this business, and, as such, we're willing to make the drive to LF Market on Bell Rd instead.
I've also noticed others mention the cleanliness of the store and, well, I don't really care, to be honest. I've noticed lots of stores similar to Tan Phat are comparably dingy. It's not a priority for me, though. I actually kind of like that feel over the sterilized feeling in most American grocery stores.
Now, if you speak Vietnamese, and your wants are within their stock, by all means, come here. We still do, sometimes, but it's certainly _not_ our go-to store.