["Global Networks, Volume 22, Issue 3, Page 530-546, July 2022. ", "\nAbstract\nIn the three decades since the Soviet Union, bazaars have enabled self‐employment for large segments of the population in the Caucasus and Central Asia. In this article, we analyse data collected through 1200 structured interviews with bazaar traders in 2016 and 2017 in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, where we inquired about money, organization and support. These data allow us to draw empirically grounded conclusions about the daily operations of independent bazaar traders in the three countries. The data reveal two trends, which we describe in this article. First, the more globalized the individual businesses – evidenced by knowledge and usage of foreign currency and long‐distance trade networks – the more profitable the individual businesses. But simultaneously, in the three countries, bazaar trading has a low potential for growth. Although the cost of entry into the bazaar is low, the data show that the possibility of transformative growth – expansion in scale, innovation in efficiency or production, or increase in earning relative to investment – is also low, which reveals limitations on what bazaar trading can add to national economies despite its popularity as a vocation.\n"]