What ever it is, Quarantine them

you mean sanitize them?

That is Aechmea fasciata, one of the spineless forms. It certainly looks big enough to divide. The mother has probably bloomed, but I doubt the pups have.

Quarantine means keep it away from your other plants. It doesn't look too bad to me, it's just that you can't be sure why they threw it out. It may be diseased or infested with mealybug or scale, or it could be that the nursery just didn't want to hassle with propagating from pups. They may get all their material as tissue cultured starts and prefer to do it that way. If so, their loss is your gain!

Oh right!Well i saw them throwing away perfectly healthy orchids coz theyve done blooming!Whos gonna buy a flowerless orchid(and this nursery doesnt sell them cheap mind you)so to the garbage they go!I examined the plant when i brought it home,no scale,no mealybugs and the pups seem healthy...ehmmm...how do i divide them?

Check the link below from the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies. There's a wealth of information to be found on that site. http://fcbs.org/articles/Offsets.htm

Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: An Illustrated Guide to Asexual Reproduction

Thank you very much!