This is only applicable to meal shops. You can do gas stations, other stores, and shops for other MSCs, etc. You can only have one meal per meal period. I'm a route shopper, and it affects me a little. I appreciate the specificity of the meal periods. I always liked the one particular shop that must remain unnamed (hedgehogs, anyone?) because the window was 11 a.m. - close. So easy to work into a route!
A bigger, unannounced change is they are severely limiting rescheduling. Now, if you ask for too many reschedules, they will cancel the shops on you. (This according to Management, who called me last month to explain why they were cancelling ALL my remaining shops.)