It's obvious that Sears Holdings (SHLD) isn't running its Sears and Kmart stores well. But one number says a lot about how the company views its operations.

That number is the amount Sears spends each year updating its stores.

Retailers like to take good care of their stores. They'll refresh the color themes, upgrade the cash registers, replace carpets and redo the signage -- anything to make the overall shopping experience better. Target (TGT), for example, announced a $1 billion renovation program last year.

In general, retailers spend $6 to $8 per square foot a year on these updates, ISI analyst Greg Melich told The Wall Street Journal.

But Sears spends far less -- about $1.50 to $2 per square foot. "That is not even enough to keep up with depreciation and amortization," writes the Journal's Justin Lahart.

So Sears management is literally watching the stores fall apart -- and doing nothing about it. Is it any wonder, then, that sales have dropped to an estimated $42 billion this year from $53 billion five years earlier? Or that the company is closing more than 100 stores next year?

If management doesn't care much about stores, don't expect shoppers to either. We've heard from plenty of commenters on this site about the deplorable customer service and shopping conditions at Sears and Kmart stores. People don't want to visit crumbling stores that haven't changed in 10 years.

There's one more number that plays into this as well, and it shows where Sears has chosen to put its money instead. The company has poured $5.2 billion in the last five years into share buybacks, which keeps the share price up and consolidates control over the company into the hands of just a few.

Looking at these numbers, it seems pretty clear that management doesn't mind running the company into the ground -- as long as it can profit along the way.