At the Trader Joe’s grocery store in west Manhattan, freezing temperatures have failed to stop hoards of people waiting outside for the store to open at 8am. Most are here to snag an increasingly rare and highly in-demand item — a dozen eggs. 

When the doors open, the rush leaves Daniel, a Trader Joe’s employee, scrambling to prevent people pushing one another or snatching up more than the store’s limit of a single egg carton per customer. At noon, when a midday egg delivery allows Trader Joe’s to restock, the entire scene plays out again.

The worst outbreak of avian flu in US history has forced farmers across the country to cull millions of egg-laying chickens, according to the US agriculture department, resulting in a widespread egg shortage. The wholesale price of a dozen Midwest large eggs has jumped from less than $3 a year ago to almost $9, according to commodity price information service Expana.