Small-scale traders often entertain spatially extensive connections of benefit to their businesses that are considered to be part of globalisation from below. This paper aims to understand the vulnerabilities of these processes by studying how the unsettling COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the geographies of small-scale businesses and contributed to the restructuring of these connections beyond the pandemic period. We employ assemblage thinking to unravel the continuous labour and temporalities implicated in the creation of connections across space. We studied these issues in Blantyre and Limbe, Malawi, where semi-structured interviews were conducted with street and market vendors. Results illustrate that the pandemic contributed to a restructuring of businesses of many vendors. They relied on less spatially extensive assemblages, i.e. local suppliers and clients. These changes lasted well into the post-pandemic period, and impacted on vendors’ livelihoods. We discuss the implications of these findings for street and market vending businesses and globalisation from below.