*sigh* It's hard to not come off as a snob when recommending a decent bicycle over a mass-merchandise bicycle. As a mechanic with over ten years' experience and over $8000 worth of my own tools of the trade, it is very stressful for me to even walk through the bicycle area of Target and other such places. Seeing a brake pad finger-loose, ready to dive into the spokes and lock the wheel on an unsuspecting future customer, is enough to make me very angry, and I could go on and on with both saftey and functionality problems that are blatantly obvious to a professional mechanic. :|
If the people who build those bicycles did a good job, they would still be low-quality, but at least they would be halfway safe. As it is, I have never seen anything other than hasty "stick-the-parts-on-it" work from any mass merchant in my city, and I am speaking with vast experience, because the last bicycle shop where I work did contract repairs for Sears. We serviced all the Sears bicycles in greater Spokane that were sold to a customer who bought the Service Agreement. Naturally, we also serviced every other make under the sun, whether of shop quality or not.
I am not a snob. Many of our customers were people who'd lost their licenses due to DUIs, or who were mentally handicapped and on limited income. I never put anyone down for coming in with their Huffy, or any other mass merchant bike, because I knew they couldn't afford a better one, any more than I can afford a decent car on my pathetic income. We do the best we can for them, oftentimes sneaking in some "mercy repairs" without charging them, just out of sympathy for someone who needs someone to look out for them. Properly adjusted, their bikes were usually capable of serving their needs adequately. At the same time, if a quality used bicycle is within reach, it will give safer, more-reliable service and have some trade-in value at the end of its life.
So if you need a utility bicycle, at least get it tuned up by a reputable bicycle shop, for saftey and functionality.