I'm a systems/process Engineer by trade and honestly just getting my feet wet with active market analysis. I was looking at monthly buckets since 2008 and noticed something very interesting: check out the variation we have been seeing since January of last year, it is huge! There is nothing like it in the previous 10 or more years.
From a systems point of view...
All of a sudden today everyone woke up, opened their eyes and said, "wow, maybe all those stores closing around the country really did mean something!"