Is having blood tests in grocery stores / pharmacies a newish thing in the US, or it existed for a long time? I lived in the US in 2004-2007, and had blood tests regularly, but it would have never occurred to me to go to a grocery store for one.
Theranos's vision was to make blood tests easier and more accessible by requiring only a finger prick instead of drawing from a vein and by giving results quickly instead of hours or days later from a lab. It sounds like Safeway got on board with that vision as a forward-looking opportunity.
If a full panel blood test was as easy as a finger prick, then I could see blood testing going mainstream in the way that Theranos is hoping, and Safeway was hoping, but it all depends on the technology actually working as advertised.
Value-add services in pharmacies are A Thing. In many places, pharmacists can administer vaccinations, and a lot of stores are adding "minute clinics" where you can go for quick health advice, blood tests, etc. Again, offering these services brings patients into the store where they will likely buy something else, and staffing these locations with nurses, nurse practitioners, or even just pharmacists, undercuts the cost of a visit to a medical doctor.