It's pretty gross. I've not seen it personally except the odd occasion if say a slide of bread falls over the side of the basket or something

I always use the tongs it's what they are there for. I remember one time in ADL being embarrassed because I was having trouble grabbing some cheese and it kept falling out and it would have been SO much easier to just go pick it up but I wanted to do the right thing. Think the guy behind me was getting a bit annoyed but yeah it's right to do the right thing.

I think what is disappointing is when (some) people have no thoght or consideration for others.. and this extends to things like using the tongs in the ham tray to grab something else... that could be very offensive to a jew/muslim/vegetarian etc not to mention contaminate the other food item potentially. Some people just don't think of these things (or care)

Most are pretty good though that I've seen.

Here's a question though - if there's one item in the dish left do you use tongs or just grab it?