Let's call the store value as s and the wholesale price as w. A store prices tapes by raising the wholesale price 50%(0.5 in decimals) and adding 25 cents, writing this as an equation, we have
[tex]s(w)=w+0.5w+0.25[/tex]If we invert the equation we're going to find the the wholesale price as a function of the store price.
[tex]\begin{gathered} s=w+0.5w+0.25 \\ s=1.5w+0.25 \\ s-0.25=1.5w \\ w(s)=\frac{s-0.25}{1.5} \end{gathered}[/tex]Now, to find the wholesale price if the sales price is $1.99, we just need to evaluate s = 1.99 on the function we created.
[tex]w(1.99)=\frac{1.99-0.25}{1.5}=1.16[/tex]The wholesale price is $1.16.