I don't think there's any harm in asking as long as you're polite about it. The important thing is to expect refusal and take it with good grace if it happens.
Now is the lounge attendant being rude when she said 'enjoy the shops', it's possible (and that's the way it sounded to the OP), but she might not have intended it to sound that way. Some people actually like shopping.
Sometimes people say things that may sound rude, but it wasn't intended that way.