When I first started sewing a couple years ago I too bought a Brother machine from Walmart. Brought it back in the first week...and headed to our local sewing shop to buy a Brother that came with a service package and warrantee that was going to be local.
I fell in love with Brother machines at that point and wouldn't by anything but Brother.
Now The Brother CS6000i is a mcahine that our local shop had a few years ago...and Walmart carries them now. I think I would take the risk with that one because it seems to me that it simply went our of style...with the rest of the project runways...
so you might get a good machine for your dollar with that one. I am not sure though....
I do know that Amazon has a good sale on The Brother CS6000i right now...