Best Buy, like other retailers, is wrestling with slowing consumer spending and rising costs, not to mention the challenges from the 800-pound gorilla, Wal-Mart Stores.

So just a dollop of cool can go a long way. Best Buy is getting a big boost by becoming the first national chain to sell the iPhone, outside of Apple's and AT&T's own stores.

Apple will be sold at 970 Best Buy stores and 16 smaller Best Buy Mobile stores. Forget about any discount, however. Best Buy says it plans to sell the iPhone 3G at the suggested retail price of $199 for the 8-gigabyte model and $299 for the 16-gigabyte model. Still, the presence of the iPhone should draw more shoppers into Best Buy's doors.

Analysts have estimated that Apple has sold nearly 3 million of the 3G iPhones since their introduction last month. The rollout at Best Buy, beginning September 7, should help push sales toward the company's goal of 10 million.

Yet if the iPhone is being sold at a Big Box in the mall or on the highway, how cool can it be?

That is probably the least of the worries for the golden child Apple. Today, Apple executives may be more concerned about a fire at the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters.

The Associated Press reports that the three-alarm fire, contained early this morning, burned the roof and the second level at one of the six buildings on the corporate campus. The cause is uncertain; no one was injured.