New Bay tree roots sticking up out of the soil in it's container

I have just bought a pair of double twisted stem Bay trees. The trees arrived with some of the roots sticking up out of the soil. Is the normal or should I possibly try to manually redirect the roots back down into the container? Sorry if this is a silly question but I'm quite new to gardening.

 

They're not roots, but suckers.
Each shoot will grow into a new bay tree if you leave them.
Is the rest of the plant OK?
They usually only produce lots of suckers if they're stressed.

 

I assume so, they look fine to my newbie eyes. I've only had them for about 2-3 weeks & the pair were delivered with the suckers sticking out of the soil on both plants when they arrived from oneclickplants. Can I cut them down without harming the plant or is it better to leave them alone?

 

Looks fine to me too.
If you leave them then you'll end up with a multi-stemmed bush.
The best way to remove them is to pull them toward the main trunk and rip them off.
This method will remove the sucker and the root bud it grew from. Don't pull away from the trunk as that will likely leave the root bud in place.
If you cut them off, then the root bud will remain and it will continue produce multiple new shoots.
As there are several, I'd suggest ripping out just one or two every couple of weeks so as not to stress the plant too much.
It's important to keep it well watered in the summer - I often forget to with my potted bays and they start to lose leaves... so keep an eye on that.
They will really appreciate a feed with seaweed extract about once a month while they're growing.

PS if any of the suckers you rip out have roots on them, you can pot them up and have more bay trees - if you want more.

 

Make sure you pull the suckers off, away from the growing trunk, do not cut them off. You should try to take a "heel" from the stem where the sucker is growing from to avoid them regrowing. This happens sometimes when the roots are damaged in some way, possibly the trees being potted on etc. Bay trees are very prone to suckering. You can always pot up the suckers and grow yourself a forest of bay trees.

 

The suckering is a natural reaction to the stress caused by topiarising and pruning and also being grown in a container. They're much happier in the ground if you have space.

 

Wow... thank you all for the great advice, the removal tips you all have given me are diamond.