>>unlikely the new tape was sold at retail by Mom and Pop Hardware

>Shurtape must have highly competitive pricing for any of their tape
>to reach Colorado. There are many tape manufacturers closer to CO than Shurtape in NC.

Its market share that is important in this situation. Even if there were a manufacturing plant right there in Boulder, its what percentage of the items sold are from NC versus these other, closer manufacturers of similar tape.

If there is very little tape from NC sold in Boulder then it is still possible but less likely that it was bought in Boulder. If despite other manufacturers being closer, their tape is not selling well in Boulder, it makes little difference since any purchaser would be likely to wind up with the NC tape if he simply walked into the store and grabbed something at random.